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COVETOUSNESS 



BROUGHT TO 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 



~& ' /"'At; 

COVETOUSNESS 



BROUGHT 



TO THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE; 



A BRIEF INQUIRY 

INTO THE NATURE AND EVIL OF THAT SIN. 



By JAMES GLASSFORD, Esq. 



Beware or CovETocs.s'ESs." — Luke xii. 16. 
" Occupy till I come." — Lu&cxix. 13. 



EDINBURGH: 

JOHN JOHNSTONE, 2, HUNTER SQUARE; 

AND JAMES NISBET AND CO. ? LONDON. 



MDCCCXXXVII. 












*£ //St. 



JOHN JOHNSTONE, PRINTER, HUNTER SQUARE. 



IN 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



In consequence of circumstances well known to most 
readers, the subject considered in the following- pages has 
lately attracted more than usual attention; and, after the 
able works in which it has been recently treated, the pre- 
sent may appear to be uncalled for and superfluous. The 
Author's excuse for still offering this Essay to the public, 
which was written before either of the volumes referred 
to had appeared, and of course without any knowledge of 
their method and plan, is, that in a matter of great practical 
importance, it is not unprofitable to exhibit the subject under 
a variety of aspects, and even at the risk of some repetition. 
It was no part of his design in preparing these remarks, 
either to advance new opinions, or to study any ornament of 
style ; but simply to examine the nature and evil of Covet- 
ousness, particularly as set forth in the Word of God ; and 
to show, by some illustrations, the extent of its influence 
in our own country. 

Edinburgh, July 1837. 



INQUIRY, &c. 



There is no sin which the Word of God has denounced 
more frequently, or stigmatized in stronger terms, than 
the sin of covetousness. The love of money is declared 
to be the root of all evil; and the covetous man is 
described as an idolater, and one whom God abhorreth. 
The danger as well as evil of this sin is a prominent 
subject of our Lord's addresses to his disciples, and of 
the letters of his inspired apostles to their Christian 
brethren. 

Yet, notwithstanding these repeated warnings and 
denunciations, there is reason to fear that of all the sins 
which dwell in the heart of man, there is none that 
lies deeper, and more easily besets or oftener pre- 
vails even to deform and mar the character of those 
who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, than this 
very sin of avarice, or the inordinate love of worldly 
possessions. It is one of those insidious and hidden 
temptations which assail the Christian unaware, because 
it approaches him while in the exercise of that which is 



8 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

in itself lawful ; because it proceeds by imperceptible 
advances which sound no alarm to the conscience, and 
because it is a secret and personal sin lurking in the 
inw r ard part ? which does not, like anger and other vio- 
lent passions, break forth at once into outward acts, or 
necessarily inflict any immediate and direct injury on 
a fellow-creature. 

It becomes, therefore, an important and interesting 
object to examine into the real nature of this sin of 
covetousness ; and into the grounds and reasons of 
that sentence of condemnation which is passed upon it 
by the unerring Word of God. And it is the more ex- 
pedient and necessary to attempt this inquiry, because 
Christian writers in general, while anxious to combat 
and expose the prevailing vices of sensual indulgence 
and extravagant and wasteful profusion, have too much 
overlooked this opposite passion of avarice and the love 
of money. 

The inquiry may be naturally divided into those three 
branches: — 1. What is covetousness? 2. Wherein 
does the evil and sinfulness of it consist? And, 3. 
What is the judgment of God against it, as revealed in 
his word ? 

After a short consideration of each of these questions, 
it will be suitable to close the subject with some admo- 
nitory cautions addressed to the Christian reader, as to 
the use and abuse of riches. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 



SECTION L 

WHAT IS COVETOUSNESS? 

Here it is to be remarked in the outset, that it is not 
every kind or degree of what may be called coveting, 
that is sinful or reprehensible, To covet, in the gene- 
ral acceptation of the word, is to desire with earnestness 
any thing which is good and valuable, or which is so con- 
sidered, and to desire a large amount of such things. But 
it is plain that there are some things which, being really 
and absolutely good in themselves, it is not merely per- 
mitted and lawful, but proper, and a commanded duty, 
to seek with eagerness, and to seek in abundant measure 
and full supply. Hence the apostle desires the Chris- 
tians at Corinth to covet earnestly the best gifts.— 
1 Cor. xii. 31. And it is evident that the favour of 
God, an interest in the Sariour, the communication of 
the Holy Spirit, and all Christian graces and disposi- 
tions, may and ought to be desired with the greatest 
fervency, and without limit. We may also, without 
blame, covet the favour and good opinion of those among 



10 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

our fellow-men, who themselves enjoy the favour of 
God, if that good opinion is not sought at the expense 
of duty, but in the discharge of it. The Psalmist 
declares that his desire was to the " excellent of the 
earth/' and their society and communion was often the 
earnest longing of his heart. The prophet denounces a 
woe upon him that coveteth an evil covetousness, — Habb. 
ii. 9 ; thus distinguishing it from one that is lawful and 
right, namely, a desire and pursuit after spiritual gifts 
and graces. 

Considered, then, as an irregular and unlawful in- 
dulgence, covetousness does not consist in the measure 
or strength of the desire, but in the direction which it 
receives, and the nature of its objects. In this limited 
and proper signification, it has reference to the pursuit 
of objects and possessions which are of an earthly and 
temporal kind, and are not fitted to be the satisfying por- 
tion of a spiritual and immortal being. 

But farther, it is not every degree of earnestness in 
the pursuit even of earthly objects and attainments, 
of things connected with this present state of existence, 
as distinguished from things spiritual and heavenly, that 
constitutes the sin of covetousness. Man is endowed 
with a reasonable soul ; the Spirit of the Almighty 
has given him understanding ; and he has been placed, 
by the gift of intellectual faculties and capacities, in 
a high rank among created beings. The culture of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 11 

these faculties is both lawful and commendable. By the 
improvement of these powers, he is not only enabled to 
procure many advantages and comforts pertaining to 
his natural life, but also enabled to attain a fuller 
knowledge of his Creator, to discern the majesty and 
glory of his character, as manifested in this lower world, 
to trace the operation of his hand, his sustaining and 
directing Providence, and, through a knowledge of the 
creature to reach a larger and more distinct knowledge 
of the all-powerful, all-wise, and all-good Creator. — 
" For the invisible things of Him from the creation of 
the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that were made." — Rom. i. 20. And the more 
extended and ample that our knowledge is both of the 
works and the providence of God, so much greater is 
the room and scope for that homage of reverence and 
love, which are the reasonable service, and constitute 
the greatest happiness of his intelligent creatures. To 
covet such knowledge therefore is allowed and com- 
mended. " Wisdom is a defence," and is " better than 
strength," or " the weapons of war." — Eccles. vii. 12, 
ix. 16 — 18. "Buy also wisdom, and instruction, and 
understanding." — Prov. xxiii. 23. For "to get under- 
standing is rather to be chosen than silver." — Prov. xvi. 
16. Also, " The heart of him that hath understanding 
seeks knowledge." — Prov. xv. 14. 

This is not the place to inquire into those mistakes 



12 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

which may be committed in the pursuit of these trea- 
sures of knowledge, or to consider the spirit in which 
that pursuit ought to be conducted ; one observation, 
however, is not altogether foreign to the present subject, 
namely, that not a few persons have been found whose 
minds were wholly bent upon amassing the stores of 
human learning, without deriving from such treasures 
of knowledge any real advantage either to themselves 
or others. These may be considered as intellectual 
misers, the obscure collectors of unprofitable lore ; and 
whose labour, in so far as they may not have left their 
discoveries upon record, must altogether perish with 
themselves and come to nought. But though, in the 
pursuit and accumulation even of intellectual riches, 
there may thus be vanity and excess, and a like in- 
ordinate desire may be manifested in seeking the 
applause of men, and a reputation in the world, by 
the exercise of other powers and faculties of our 
nature, the more appropriate and more frequent ex- 
amples of this sinful affection of covetousness are to 
be found in the pursuit of things altogether earthly and 
sensual ; of gold, and silver, and houses, and lands ; of 
all those possessions which minister to the gratification 
of appetite and sense. The nature of the passion is 
to be considered then, in this, its usual and restricted 
sense, namely, that love of money, the representative 
of all worldly possessions, which is denoted by the term 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 

avarice, and is called in Scripture the mammon of un- 
righteousness. 

The desire to accumulate property is natural to man 
at every season of life, and in every condition. Next 
to pride, that universal passion of the human heart, the 
wish to amass wealth appears to be the most prevailing 
disposition in the mind of man. A striking remark is 
made on this subject, by a late American traveller : # — 
" We have found pride in the remotest Indian lodge 
we ever visited, and have hardlv . ever engaged in ten 
minutes' conversation with a northern Indian, without 
discovering it not only to exist, but, where there was 
moral energy at all, as constituting the primary motive 
to action. It has always been found, however, unac- 
companied by one of its most constant concomitants in 
civilized life, namely, the desire of wealthe" The ex- 
ception thus noted, and by which a strong confirmation 
is afforded of the general rule, may be accounted for 
by the situation and modes of life of the North Ameri- 
can Indians. But, though such be the case with these 
and some other nomadic tribes, where shall we ever 
expect to find a country or people advanced even to the 
earliest stages of social improvement, among whom the 
accumulation of property, beyond the mere natural and 
recurring wants of the individual, is not the first and 

* Narrative of an expedition through the Upper Mississippi, 1832, 
New York. 



14 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

universal object of pursuit ? And in proportion to the 
progress of civilization does this passion commonly in- 
crease and gather strength. 

In ascertaining how far the indulgence of this natu- 
ral desire is lawful to the Christian, or otherwise, an 
important line of distinction is to be drawn. For it is 
not a mere possession of the good things of this life, or 
labour bestowed in the acquisition of them, which is in- 
jurious and forbidden, as constituting the sin of covet- 
ousness. On the contrary, we know that God has 
given us all things richly to enjoy; that " every crea- 
ture of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be 
received with thanksgiving." — 1 Tim. iv. 4. The 
earth and its abundance was given for the use of man 
in his state of innocence ; and the only difference in 
this respect as to fallen man, is the condition of labour 
in the attainment of these blessings, and the command 
to eat bread in the sweat of his brow. Nor is there 
any difference between the produce of the soil and that 
which represents it in the interchange of men, namely, 
money, which is a lawful and convenient instrument in 
that exchange. It is not money, but the love of money 
which is the root of evil ; it is the inordinate desiVe 
and thirst of obtaining and increasing wealth which is 
forbidden and condemned. The rich man, of whom it 
is said that he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, 
is he who trusteth in his riches ; who has set his heart 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 15 

upon them, and makes the possession of riches a su- 
preme object of his care and affection. In the parable of 
the unjust steward, our Saviour does not prohibit the 
possession or the use of worldly wealth, but directs to 
the right employment of it. So likewise in the parable 
of the talents, it is not the possession of money or 
other worldly gifts, whether they be few or many, that 
is condemned, but solely the neglect to apply them as 
they were intended and ought to be applied. 

There is no gift of God, then, even connected with 
things earthly and temporal, which may not be possess- 
ed and thankfully enjoyed. The blessings offered to 
his people of old comprehended those of the basket 
and the store ; and the promises of the Gospel extend, 
in like manner, to things of the life that now is, in ad- 
dition to those of the life that is to come. The error 
and the transgression consist in giving those things an 
undue place in our affections, or in the abuse of them, 
whether by employing them for evil, or by not employ- 
ing them for good. Hence the apostle, in the passage 
last referred to, while he says that no creature of God 
is to be refused, if received with thanksgiving, adds this 
farther important condition and direction, " for it is 
sanctified by the word of God and prayer." — 1 Tim.iv. 5. 

Having shortly considered what is not included in 

the sin of covetousness, it is now to be ascertained 

wherein that evil passion actually consists. It may be 
a 2 



16 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

defined an inordinate love of earthly and temporal pos- 
sessions, and desire after them. It is applicable to these, 
in every variety and kind ; whether the object of desire 
be the goods of others, or such as are not thus appro- 
priated. When money? as distinguished from other 
goods, is the object of this inordinate affection, we 
usually give it the more peculiar name of avarice. 

He who applies himself greedily to acquire and 
heap up earthly possessions, of whatever kind, may do so 
either for the purpose of using them in the gratification 
of his own desires and pleasures, and the aggrandizement 
of himself and his family, or merely for the purpose of 
accumulation and amassing a treasure, without any other 
immediate and definite end. The sin is the same in 
both cases. In the former, indeed, some advantage may 
be derived to others, who, by their labour and skill, 
minister to the pursuits of the covetous man, and to his 
means of enjoyment; while, in the latter case, no such 
consequence may directly follow. But the sensualist 
and the miser, who, in different ways, thus pursue after 
their covetousness, lie, in the sight of God, under equal 
condemnation. The guilt, indeed, may be aggravated 
in certain cases, by adding to the sin of covetousness 
other sins to which it often leads. When David coveted 
the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, he added to that first sin 
those of adultery and murder. When Achan coveted 
the goodly Babylonish garments, and the silver and the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 17 

gold of the captives, he added to that sin both disobe- 
dience to the command of his superiors, and artful and 
fraudulent concealment, endangering the safety of the 
army. The people of Israel and Judah, whom the prophet 
Micah denounced for " coveting fields which they took 
by violence, and houses, and taking them away," — Mic, 
ii. 2, — added to their greed, injustice and oppression. 
When Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, followed Naaman, 
and, under false pretences, obtained from him two 
talents of silver and two changes of raiment, he added 
to his sin of avarice the sin of lying, and the sin of dis- 
obedience and treachery toward the prophet. And 
when Judas, for thirty pieces of silver sold his Master, 
he added to the sin of covetousness the sins of blackest 
ingratitude, treason, and murder. But, in all these 
cases, it w r as still the same sin of covetousness which was 
the root and origin of these aggravated evils and crimes. 
It is evident, then, that whether this passion be indulged 
for the purposes of priae and voluptuous enjoyment, or 
for the miser's gratification of penurious hoarding, and 
whether the acquisition of wealth is made by extortion 
and rapacity, or the more indirect methods of fraud, or 
by unjustly withholding from others that which is their 
due, the evil and the sin are the same. The prophet 
thus speaks of Shallum, king of Judah : — " Woe unto 
him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his 
chambers by wrong : that useth his neighbour's service 



18 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

without wages, and giveth him not for his work ; that 
saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers? 
and cuttethhim out windows, and it is ceiled with cedar? 
and painted with vermilion : Shalt thou reign because 
thou closest thyself in cedar ? Did not thy father eat 
and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it 
was well with him ? He judged the cause of the poor 
and needy ; then it was well with him : Was not this to 
know me? saith the Lord : but thine eyes and thy heart 
are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent 
blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it." — 
Jerem. xxii. 1 3 — 17. Yet we see that the judgment is 
not less severe which is denounced by the apostle against 
them who hoard up their treasures of gold, and silver, 
and apparel, till, through accumulation and want of use, 
they are wasted and become corrupt. " Go to now, 
ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall 
come upon you ; your riches are corrupted, and your 
garments are moth-eaten ; your gold and silver is can- 
kered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, 
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire : Ye have heaped 
treasure together for the last days." — James v. 1-3. 

But, since the earth is given for the use of man, and 
the enjoyment of temporal things is not forbidden, it 
may be asked, what is the degree and amount of that 
care for temporal goods which is lawful in itself? and 
at what point does the pursuit of them, with a view to 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 19 

such enjoyment, become unlawful, and degenerate into 
covetousness ? The answer must be sought in the de- 
clarations of Scripture ; for the address is more espe- 
cially made to those who acknowledge the obligation and 
authority of the law and word of God. On reference 
to that perfect canon and rule of life, w r e are taught as 
follows : — 

1 . There is no direct and absolute limitation to the 
amount of earthly possessions w 7 hich may lawfully be 
acquired. The goods of this life, like every thing else 
which we have or can procure, are the gifts of God, 
and may be used according to the measure in which 
he bestows them, provided that they are employed 
agreeably to his will, and with an eye to his glory, and to 
that account which he will require of us. " Every man 
also to whom God hath given riches, and wealth, and 
hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his 
portion, and to rejoice in his labour ; this is the gift of 
God." — Eccles. v. 19. " When thou hast eaten and 
art full, then shalt thou bless the Lord thy God for the 
good land which he hath given thee." — Deut. viii. 10. 
Among the promises of God to Solomon, are " riches, 
and wealth, and honour." — 2 Chron. i. 12. " There- 
fore," said the patriarch, in that blessing which fell 
upon Jacob, " God give thee of the dew of heaven, 
and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and 
wine." — Gen. xxvii. 28. " And ye shall eat the fat of 



20 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

the land," says God himself to his people. — Gen. xlv. 
18. Nehemiah, the governor, after prayer and solemn 
reading of the law to the children of the captivity, 
66 said unto the people, go your way, eat the fat, and 
drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for w T hom 
nothing is prepared ; for this day is holy unto our Lord : 
neither be ye sorry ; for the joy of the Lord is your 
strength." — Neh. viii, 10. " If ye be willing and 
obedient," says God by his prophet, " Ye shall eat the 
good of the land." — Is. i. 19. " And Joseph said, 
peace be to you ; fear not : your God and the God 
of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks." — 
Gen. xliii. 23. Peter said to Ananias, while thy 
land " remained, was it not thine own ? and after it was 
sold, was it not in thine own power ? " — Acts v. 3, 4. 
Ananias had not sinned, although he had retained his 
possessions ; but he was guilty of covetousness, as well as 
lying and hypocrisy, in retaining part of that which he 
pretended to bestow. 

Temporal goods, then, as one of the gifts of God, 
and even the abundance of them, may lawfully be re- 
ceived and used ; and the measure of that use is gra- 
ciously left by him to be governed by the circumstances 
and the wants of his people* The natural and implant- 
ed desires of man will never fail to direct and prompt 
him to the acquisition of what is needful. " He that 
laboureth, laboureth for himself: for his mouth craveth 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 21 

it of him." — Prov. xvi. 26. But, besides that suffi- 
ciency, he is graciously permitted and encouraged to 
provide what is requisite to render life comfortable to 
himself and useful to others. Agur prays not only to 
be kept from the snare of riches, but from the tempta- 
tions of poverty. And the apostle enjoins his fellow- 
Christians to provide things honest in the sight of all 
men ; and showed, by his example, that he knew how 
to abound, as well as how T to suffer want. A sufficient 
latitude, in short, is given as to temporal blessings, both 
for the wants of the individual, and the communication 
of kind offices to others; all that is really desirable 
both for life and godliness. 

Nor is it merely a permission and tolerance which 
is granted for the enjoyment of temporal comforts and 
advantages ; but farther, the acquisition of them, under 
qualifications to be immediately noticed, is a command- 
ed duty ; and activity, in the necessary business of life, 
is a Christian obligation. " The hand of the diligent 
maketh rich." — Prov. x. 4. " He that gathereth by 
labour shall increase." — Prov. xiii. 11. " Thou ought- 
est to have put my money to the exchangers ; and then, 
at my coming, I should have received mine own with 
usury," that is with profit — Matt. xxv. 27. Earthly 
possessions, like the bodily and mental powers, and 
every other gift, are talents committed to man, in trust, 
and are to be employed with diligence, as well as 



22 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

fidelity, in the service of the Giver. Hence the re- 
proof of our Saviour to the negligent servant, in the 
words last quoted. And hence his injunction to his 
disciples : " Make to yourselves friends of the mammon 
of unrighteousness," that is, of worldly riches ; for 
" he that is faithful in that which is least, will be faith- 
ful also in much." — Luke xvi. 9, 10. Hence the 
command, not to be slothful in business, along with the 
command, to serve the Lord. 

But, though there is no restriction imposed on the 
amount of earthly possessions, which, as the gift of God, 
may lawfully be received and thankfully used, there are 
very important limitations laid down in his word, as to 
the degree of earnestness with which they may be 
sought after and pursued, the methods by which this 
pursuit may be conducted, and the purposes for which 
these possessions, when acquired, may be employed. 
These limitations shall briefly be adverted to in their 
order. 

2. It is to be observed, then, that a condition and 
limitation is prescribed to the pursuit of temporal goods, 
both as regards the extent of them, and the urgency 
with which they may be sought. God said of the king 
whom his people were to set over them, " He shall not 
multiply horses to himself, — neither shall he greatly 
multiply to himself riches and gold." — Deut. xvii. 16, 
17. The promise given to Solomon of earthly pos- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 23 

sessions and honour was not given in answer to 
prayer for these blessings, but as a gracious reward 
bestowed by God in consideration of the more spirit- 
ual blessings which he did supplicate : " Because this 
was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, 
wealth, or honour, — but hast asked wisdom and know- 
ledge for thyself, that thou may est judge my people, 
over whom I have made thee king ; wisdom and know- 
ledge is granted unto thee, and I will give thee riches, 
and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have 
had that have been before thee, neither shall there any 
after thee have the like."— 2 Chron. i. II, 12. " Labour 
not to be rich," says that king, who was himself thus 

endowed with riches Prov.xxiii. 4. " Feed me," savs 

Agur, " with food convenient for me." — Prov. xxx. 8. 
" Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay 
field to field, till there be no place ; "■ — Isaiah v. 8, — who 
are eagerly set upon the^ enlargement of their bounds 
and the increase of their inheritance. The Gospel 
abounds in precepts and warnings to the same effect. 
" Woe unto you that are rich, — w 7 oe unto you that are 
full." — Luke vi. 24, 25. " Lay not up for yourselves 
treasures upon earth. — Take no thought," no anxious 
and unbelieving concern, " for your life, w T hat ve shall 
eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for the body, what 
ye shall put on." — Matt. vi. 19, 24. " Labour not for 
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endur- 



24 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

eth unto everlasting life." — John vi. 27. Do not labour, 
that is, for the first, with the same earnestness as for the 
latter ; much more, do not labour for the first to the 
exclusion of the last. " Having food and raiment, let 
us be therewith content." — 1 Tim. vi. 8. " Be* content 
with such things as ye have." — Heb. xiii. 5. " Love 
not the world, neither the things that are in the world." 
— 1 John ii. 15. Many other passages of a similar 
import might be referred to, if necessary, from which 
may be deduced this two-fold proposition, that there is 
no direct promise in the word of God to encourage 
those in their pursuit who desire more than a convenient 
and competent supply of temporal goods ; and that to 
labour even for such a portion of them with our chief 
anxiety and supreme care, betrays a want of Christian 
faith and dependence upon the providence and the pro- 
mises of God. The Christian, while engaged in the 
pursuit of things temporal, is to feel a holy indifference 
for the result, both as regards the success of that pur- 
suit, and the amount of the acquisition. His zeal is to 
be in the prosecution of heavenly things, and his soul 
to " follow hard " after God. — Ps. lxiii. Under the in- 
fluence of these feelings, and this submission to the will 
of God, he will be content with such things as he has, 
and will know how to use them according to God's ap- 
pointment, so that gathering little he will lack nothing, 
or gathering much he will have nothing over. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 25 

3. There is a farther limitation imposed as to the 
manner of obtaining earthly possessions, and the way in 
which that object is pursued. There are some methods 
of acquiring them which are lawful and commendable, 
namely, by the industrious exercise of the various 
powers and faculties bestowed upon man, whether of 
body or mind ; or by the voluntary act of his fellow- 
men, or whatever other instrument of the providence of 
God. And there are many other ways and methods 
which are plainly unlawful. In one case the blessing of 
God may, under the conditions and limits already men- 
tioned, be expected to accompany the possession. In 
the other case, that blessing can by no means be looked 
for. It is evident that to desire and seek after that 
which is the lawful property of another person, without 
his consent in the way of purchase or exchange, is in all 
cases forbidden, and constitutes the direct sin of covet- 
ousness, whether the attempt is made by open violence, 
or by secret fraud and stealth. " Thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbour's house ; thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbour's wife," &c. — Ex. xx. 17. " He that getteth 
riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of 
his days, and at his end shall be a fool." — Jerem. xvii. 
11. " Treasures of wickedness profit nothing. — Tie 
Lord casteth away the substance of the wicked,"— Prov. 
x. 2, 3. " He that maketh haste to be rich," who is set 
upon obtaining wealth without considering whether the 



26 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

means be lawful or otherwise, shall " not be innocent. — 
He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye," he will fall 
into transgression, and will envy and covet that which 
is another's.— Prov. xx. 22. " Hear this, O ye that 
swallow up the needy, — saying, when will the new 
moon be gone, that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath 
that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, 
and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by de- 
ceit ? that we may buy the poor for silver, and the 
needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the 
wheat ? The Lord hath sworn, by the excellency of 
Jacob, surely I will not forget any of their works ; shall 
not the land tremble for this ? " — Amos viii. 4-8. 

In the catalogue of the sins of Judah, it is said by 
the prophet, " In thee have they taken gifts to shed 
blood : thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast 
greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast 
forgotten me, saith the Lord God." — Ezek. xxii. 12. 
" Are there yet," says the Lord, by another prophet, 
" the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wick- 
ed ? and the scant measure that is abominable ? Shall 
I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with 
the bag of deceitful weights? — for the rich men thereof 
are full of violence. — Therefore also will I make thee 
sick in smiting thee," &c. — Mic. vi. 10-13. It was the 
condemnation of the sons of Samuel, that " they turned 
aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judg- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 2/ 

merit." — 1 Sam.viii. 3. " Woe to him that increaseth 
that which is not his. How long ? And to him that 
ladeth himself with thick clay. — Woe to him that buildeth 
a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity," — 
Habb. ii. 6-12. Felix, the Roman governor, was 
ready, through covetousness, to receive a bribe. For 
" he hoped that money should have been given him 
of Paul, that he might loose him ; wherefore he sent 
for him the oftener, and communed with him." — 
Acts xxiv. 26. Of similar character are those false 
teachers of whom the apostle Peter says, " Through 
covetousness shall they with feigned words make mer- 
chandize of you — an heart they have exercised with 
covetous practices — and are gone astray, following the 
way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages 
of unrighteousness." — 2 Pet. ii. 3-14, &c. Here, as 
in the case of the sons of Samuel, we see covetous- 
ness entering even into the house of God, and the 
Church of Christ : men, who, in the corresponding lan- 
guage of Jude, will even turn "the grace of our God into 
lasciviousness," to the gratification of their worldly de- 
sires, and will " run greedilv after the error of Balaam 
for reward." — Jude 4-1 1 . . 

4. Lastly, on this part of the subject, there are 
important conditions and restrictions under which the 
goods of this world are given and may be enjoyed, 
in so far as concerns the uses and purposes to which 



28 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

they may lawfully be applied. Let these conditions 
be shortly considered, having reference here, as in 
other cases, to the word of God as the authority and 
rule. 

The primary purpose of temporal possessions is for the 
life and well-being of the individual to whom thev are 
given, and of those who are dependent upon him. The 
earth is allowed for the use of man ; the fruits of it and 
the produce of man's industry, are bestowed for his sus- 
tentation and comfort, to be received with thanksgiving. 
Here, too, as in all his dispensations, the benevolence 
of the gracious Giver is conspicuous. For there is no 
absolute and determined limit, as already observed, to 
the prescribed enjoyment of worldly blessings. God 
giveth largely ; and the Gospel dispensation is, with 
respect to things temporal as well as spiritual, enlarged 
in its principle and expansive in its operation. As 
earthly possessions, whether these have been acquired 
by the personal exertions and lawful industry of the in- 
dividual, or poured into his lap through the providence 
of God, may be held by the Christian in abundant 
measure, without rebuke or blame; so, in the distribution 
of them again, he is not restricted to particular and 
single objects, but is allowed an ample scope of valuable 
and important purposes to which he may lawfully apply 
them, in the greatest extent and variety. God, who is 
rich in bounty, wills not to restrain the receiver by po- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 29 

sitive rules as to the employment of his gifts, but only 
by general laws and principles, which resolve into the 
promotion of his own glory and the happiness of his 
creatures ; principles not different or opposed, but co- 
incident and the same. The promotion of the Re- 
deemer's honour, bv the extension of his kingdom in 

' %J o 

the earth, is the great instrument to this end ; but the 
subordinate means and channels by which this end may 
be reached, are numerous and diversified. To use the 
abundance of temporal wealth for purposes of human 
pride and ambition, and sensual indulgence, is nowhere 
warranted in the word of God. But to employ it in 
the various ways which contribute to the improvement 
of man's social and intellectual condition, or add to the 
sum of human happiness and comfort, is nowhere in that 
word forbidden. God has revealed himself, not only 
by his written word, but also by his created works ; and 
whatever tends to make s these works more fullv and 
more exactly known, tends also to exalt the Creator ; 
and, next to the diffusion of his word, is a fit and com- 
mendable object wherewith the talent of worldly riches 
may be occupied. It cannot be doubted that the cul- 
tivation of human science, and literature, and art, when 
conducted with Christian humility, and subordinate to 
higher objects and ends, is not only consistent with 
Christian principle, but may be rendered the hand- 
maid of Christian faith ; and, in common with the whole 



30 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

physical and moral powers of man, may be rendered an 
instrument of God's glory, as it has too often, through 
the perverseness and sinful passions of men, been used 
as an instrument to dishonour him. 

But further, not only may the possessor of worldly 
riches employ them for the uses and comforts of life, 
and bestow them in numberless wavs for the benefit, 
direct or indirect, of others ; but he may also, for allow- 
ed objects and purposes, lay up in store for the future. 
This, indeed, is not only lawful, but in measure is re- 
quisite and necessary for the ends of life ; subject to 
those conditions and limits which follow from the gene- 
ral precepts of Christian duty, forbidding all excess in 
temporal enjoyments, and requiring the follower of Christ 
to let his moderation be known unto all men ; subject 
also to a constant and prevailing sense of that account 
which is to be rendered of every talent committed to his 
trust. When thus regulated, there is no sin in laying 
up a portion of the fruits of industry. It may even be 
a moral and religious duty so to do. The apostle gives 
this injunction to the Christians at Corinth : " Upon 
the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by 
him in store, as God hath prospered him ;" for the pur- 
pose, that is, of ministering to the saints who were in 

nee d. 1 Cor. xvi. 2. " If any provide not for his 

own," says the same apostle, " and specially for those 
of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 31 

than an infidel/' — 1 Tim. v. 8. That is, he who 
makes not the necessary provision for those who, in the 
order of providence, are thrown upon his care, whether 
of his kindred or of the poor, acts not upon Christian 
doctrine, and falls short even of the unbeliever, who is 
destitute of that higher principle. The injunction, in- 
deed, is not unfrequently wrested to a false application ; 
for it is important to remember, that he who is under 
this moral and Christian obligation of providing for 
those of his own house, is liable to the same condition 
as in providing for himself. He is bound to provide 
things requisite and lawful, but not at liberty, either in 
his own case or that of others, to lay up in store for the 
gratification of inordinate desires, or of worldly pride 
and ostentation, thus making " provision for the flesh 
to fulfil the lusts thereof." 

There are occasions, too, of a public and general 
nature, when even a very large and extraordinary ac- 
cumulation of provision and treasure may be proper 
and fitting ; of which we see various examples in Scrip- 
ture history. When Joseph gathered all the money 
in Egypt, he was not reproved for that act, which was 
done in the public character which he then held, and 
for public purposes, not for his personal aggrandize- 
ment or indulgence. When Solomon collected the 
wealth of kings, and treasures of gold, and silver, and 
all precious things, and provided his treasure-house and 



32 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

his armoury, this care and industry was an act of piety 
and kingly state, for the service of God and the defence 
of his kingdom. 

The acquisition and accumulation of temporal goods 
may become sinful in two several ways. There is a 
positive abuse of wealth, which consists in employing it 
improperly ; and there is what may be called a negative 
abuse of it, which consists in not putting it to those 
uses for which, in the providence of God, it is bestowed, 
and which latter is, in a more peculiar sense, the sin of 
avarice. Though we may thus distinguish two classes 
of persons, those who collect for the purpose of expend- 
ing on worldly uses and gratifications, and those who 
collect merely for amassing what they cannot employ, 
and have no intention of using, there is little difference 
as to the sin or its degree. The evil principle of con- 
duct is the same, though the character of the individu- 
als may, in other respects, be very different. The man 
who sets his affections upon the attainment of riches, 
for either of these purposes, is alike guilty of the sin of 
covetousness, or the undue desire of worldly posses- 
sions. This is not the place to enlarge upon the first 
mentioned abuse of riches, though it is the most com- 
mon, because it rather resolves into other sins on which 
it closely borders, and which are not the present subject 
of inquiry; sins of sensuality, pride, and ambition. It 
is scarcely necessary to prove the unlawfulness of gather- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 33 

ing stores of worldly wealth for the purpose of sensual 
and luxurious gratification. The Israelites " tempted 
God in their heart," says the Psalmist, " by asking 
meat for their lust." — Ps. lxxviii. 18. " Ye ask and 
receive not," says the Apostle James, " because ye 
ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." — - 
James iv. 3. M Go to now ye rich men; weep and 
howl for your miseries that shall come upon you... ye 
have heaped treasure together for the last days... ye 
have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ; 
ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter." 
— James v. 1, 3, 5. 

A religious man cannot be an avowed sensualist. To 
increase wealth for such purposes will immediately be 
condemned by every one who professes the faith ;of the 
Gospel. The Christian will, in general, go farther, 
and condemn equally those vain indulgences which in 
Scripture language are described as the pride of life. 
He will not claim the right to accumulate wealth and 
great possessions, in order to aggrandize his family and 
relations, to obtain pre-eminence on the earth, and that 
homage and subserviency which is paid by worldly men 
to those who have large possessions. But if any Christian 
should secretly cherish in his heart such feeling, and 
give way, through the contagion of worldly influence, 
to such motives of pride and ambition, as an excuse for 
the pursuit of wealth, let him reflect upon the following 



34 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

declarations of the word of God : — " Be not conformed 
to this world." — Rom. xii. 2. " Ye cannot serve God 
and mammon." He who has his affections placed 
upon the riches of this world, who makes them the chief 
and principal object of his concern, cannot look to God 
as the supreme object of his desire ; he cannot love and 
serve him with his whole heart, and mind, and strength. 
It is one of the characters of the citizen of Sion, that 
" he putteth not out his money to usury ;" that is, for 
undue gain and advantage. — Ps. xv. 5. " Let not the 
rich man glory in his riches," says the prophet ; let 
him not make his wealth a subject of boast or of confi- 
dence. — Jer. ix. 23. It is part of Job's imprecation 
while protesting his innocency, " If I have made gold 
my hope, or have said to the fine gold, thou art my con- 
fidence ; if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and 
because mine hand had gotten much," &c. — Job xxxi. 
24, 25. The treasures of silver and gold which the 
people of Israel heaped up were the stumbling-block of 
their iniquity, and one of the reasons of their final over- 
throw. — Ezek. vii. 19. Thus, too, the prophet says of 
Tyre, " With thy wisdom and with thine under- 
standing thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten 
gold and silver into*thy treasures ; by thy great wisdom 
and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches ; and 
thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches ; therefore, 
thus saith the Lord God, because thou hast set thine 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. OO 

heart as the heart of God," in thy pride and confi- 
dence, " behold, therefore, I will bring strangers upon 
thee, the terrible of the nations." — Ezek. xxviii. 4-7. 
The judgment of God, that is to say, came upon 
them because of their presumption on account of wealth 
and worldly prosperity. " Woe to him that coveteth an 
evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest 
on high, that he may be delivered from the power of 
evil." — Habb. ii. 9. " Woe unto you that are rich," 
says the Lord Jesus ; you, that is, who trust in your 
riches, " for ye have received your consolation." — Luke 
vi. 24. 

The state of mind in the worldly man, as contrasted 
with his real condition in the sight of God, is thus 
strongly depicted in the word of inspiration. " Their 
inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for 
ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations : they 
call their lands after their own names... .This their way 
is their folly. . . . Like sheep they are laid in the grave ; 
death shall feed on them ; and the upright shall have 
dominion over them in the morning" of the resurrec- 
tion.../ 4 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, 
when the glory of his house is increased : for when he 
dieth he shall carry nothing away ; his glory shall not 
descend after him." — Ps. xlix. 11-17. " They that 
will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into 
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in 



36 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

destruction and perdition. For the love of money is 
the root of all evil ; which, while some coveted after, 
they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves 
through with many sorrows." — 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. " Let 
your conversation," your life and walk in the world, 
" be without covetousness." — Heb. xiii. 5. 

But though it is a common, perhaps the most frequent 
case, that the covetous man multiplies to himself lands, 
and houses, and silver, and gold, for the purposes of 
selfrindulgence, and vanity, and worldly power, he may 
be greedy of gain without contemplating these objects, 
and without an immediate aim at such gratifications. 
This forms the second abuse or misapplication of 
worldly possessions, which it was proposed to notice, 
and is the counterpart of the former. In this, the means 
are converted into the end, and the desire of riches ter- 
minates in the mere accumulation, in the single act of 
amassing treasures which it is no part of the possessor's 
design to employ for the above or any other use. This 
is avarice in the unqualified sense of the term, and ex- 
hibits the passion of covetousness in all its naked defor- 
mity. As the productions of the earth, which are the 
gift of God, may be abused by intemperance and excess, 
so they may also be abused by not employing them for 
the purposes on account of which they are bestowed. 
The Christian is not to misuse his Master's goods, 
either by waste, — Luke xvi. U or by diverting them from 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 37 

their proper ends, — Matt. xxiv. 49. Earthly possessions 
are a trust, and ought to be expended in the service of 
the Giver ; and the good of man is a prominent part of 
that service. One of the purposes for which wealth is 
bestowed in greater abundance upon some than upon 
others is, that occasion may be given for the exercise of 
brotherly kindness. But the sensualist and the miser 
equally disappoint this gracious end. 

If every just man that now pines in want 
Had but a moderate and becoming share 
Of that which lewdly pampered luxury 
Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed 
In unsuperrluous even proportion, 
And she no whit encumbered with her store ; 
And then the Giver would be better thanked, 
His praise due paid.* 

The miser who hoards the gift, and applies it not, is 
equally unprofitable and not less unfaithful than the 
spendthrift. In a certain sense, indeed, it is a Christian 
duty to spare and to save of earthly goods ; but in the 
sense only of abstaining from sinful and unnecessary indul- 
gence, and in order to bestow them upon purposes that 
are useful and commanded. The duty of self-denial 
does not consist merely in abstinence from sensual grati- 
fication, but in the resistance of all immoderate desire ; 
and while there are many who must exercise this denial 
by sparing in their expenditure, so there are some who 

* Milton, 



38 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

must exercise it by enlarging that expenditure. The 
niggardly man is unjust both to himself and others. 
He denies himself the lawful comfort of his goods and 
estate, which are profitable to the sustentation and well- 
being, not only of the body, but also of the mind and 
soul ; and he never draws out his heart and affections 
to his fellow-creatures. He who amasses an earthly 
store, without using or distributing, is not the only 
example, indeed, perhaps not the most remarkable, of 
those who hide the Lord's talent ; but that he is one of 
that number cannot be doubted. 

It would be easy to enlarge on the folly and unhap- 
piness attending this passion of avarice. By the consent 
of whole nations and people, the avaricious man has 
been placed out of the pale of society, as one excluded 
from the ordinary sympathies of his fellow-creatures; 
and even in their speech he has been designated as 
a man of wretchedness and misery ; as, peculiarly and 
emphatically, the " unhappy" man. The writer of 
romance, the comic poet, and the satirist, have ex- 
hausted their ingenuity and their powers of language 
in presenting the portrait of the miser in the deepest 
lines, and most offensive colouring; and they have 
been unable to exaggerate the truth, or even to equal 
the reality. For biography affords not a few remark- 
able examples of this vice, exceeding in actual history 
all which the most fertile imagination could suggest of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 39 

what is base and sordid in human character. But it 
is not the present purpose to delineate the particular 
features of this vice, or adduce instances of its power, 
so much as to characterise the general nature of the 
sin, and that state of heart and mind in which it con- 
sists. And for this purpose the appeal must be made 
again to the declarations of Scripture as the unerring 
authority : 

" There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath no- 
thing." — Prov. xiii. 7. Here is the case of the covetous 
man, who has no profit by his toil, who amasses a store, 
but knows not how to enjoy or use it. Of another such, 
it is said by the wise man, " He hath neither child nor 
brother, yet is there no end of all his labour, neither is 
his eye satisfied with riches, neither saith he for w 7 hom 
do I labour, and bereave my soul of good ? " — Eccles. 
iv. 8. He has not even a successor for whom he 
destines his wealth, but is actuated by the single 
unqualified lust of gold, Solomon recurs again and 
again to this case, to expose the folly and condemn the 
vice. " There is a sore evil which 1 have seen under 
the sun, namely, riches kept by tho owners thereof to 
their hurt ; but those riches perish by evil travail." 
—Eccles. v. 13, 14. " There is an evil which I have 
seen under the sun, and it is common among men : a 
man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and 

honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all 

b 2 



40 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

that he desireth ; yet God giveth him not power to eai 
thereof, but a stranger eateth it ; this is vanity, and it 
is an evil disease." — Eccies. vi. 1, 2. Riches thus 
hoarded are not only unprofitable, but a burthen $ and 
shall become a curse. They will either perish with 
the owner, or, by the overruling providence of God* 
be given to others, while he himself shall lie down as 
a fool. " The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the 
just." — Prov. xiii. 22. " So are the ways of every one 
that is greedy of gain ; which taketh away the life of the 
owner thereof."- — Prov. i. 19. 

But while they are alike condemned who either abuse 
the gift of wealth by intemperate and lavish waste, or 
pervert it by withholding its right application, we are 
not left ignorant as to the just use of worldly posses- 
sions, and our duty in respect to the management of 
them. And here the leading principle and direction to 
the Christian is, to employ them in the service of the 
Giver and to his glory. " The silver is mine, and the 
gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts." — Hagg. ii. 8. 
As they came from him they are to revert to him. 
Every talent is to be occupied in the way which is 
agreeable to the will of Christ, through whose purchase 
they are received ; and love to Him is the motive of 
obedience. His command is, " Occupy till I come." 
As the loan is from him, and the account is to be 
rendered to him, there can be no doubt that the uses 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 41 

nre to be such as he will approve : and the direction is 
to be found in the two great principles of Christian 
conduct, love to God, and love to man : when these 
are the governing motives, the blessing 1 mav be ex- 
pected, for it is promised, " Honour the Lord with 
thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine in- 
crease ; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and 
thy presses shall burst out with new wine."— Pro v. iii. 
9, 10. " There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth :. 
and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it 
tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, 
and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." — 
Prov. xi. 24, 25. Of the avaricious man it is said, " He 
eoveteth greedily all the day long; but the righteous 
giveth and spareth not." — Prov. xxi. 26. " Is not this 
the fast that I have chosen," says the Lord, " to deal 
thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor 
that are cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the 
naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thy- 
self from thine own flesh. Then shall thy light break 
forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth 
speedily ; and thy righteousness shall go before thee : 
the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then 
shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer ; thou shalt 
cry, and he shall say, Here I am.... If thou draw out 
thy soul to the hungry," draw thy affections from self, 
selfish enjoyments and interest, extending them to others 



42 COVETOtTSNESS BROUGHT TO 

who are in need, " and satisfy the afflicted soul, then 
shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as 
the noon-day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, 
and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones ; 
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring 
erf water, whose waters fail not." — Isa, lviii. 6-11. 
Jesus said to the young man who desired to become his 
disciple, and on whom he looked with complacency, " If 
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give 
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; 
and come and follow me." — Mat. xix. 21. And to all 
his disciples he says, " Give, and it shall be given unto 
you ; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, 
and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For 
with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be 
measured to you again." — Luke vi. 38. Upon these 
principles did his early disciples act. " For as many as 
were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought 
the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them 
down at the Apostles' feet." — Acts iv. 34, 35. " And 
all that believed were together, and had all things com- 
mon ; aa'd sold their possessions and goods, and parted 
them to all men, as every man had need. And they, 
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and 
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat 
with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and 
having ( favOur with all the people."* — Acts ii. 44-47* 



THE BAH OF SCRIPTURE. 43 

It is unnecessary to stop here for the purpose of in- 
quiring into the peculiar circumstances of the Christian 
church in Jerusalem at that time, when the small num- 
ber of believers situated in the midst of a hostile popu- 
lation, and exposed to the watchful and persecuting 
jealousy of the rulers and governors, not only drew the 
bonds of their union closer, but enabled them to main- 
tain with greater advantage, that entire community of 
goods. The principle from which it arose, however 
modified it may be by other and opposite conditions of 
society, remains ever the same, and will manifest itself 
according to the occasion and necessity, in love to the 
brethren, and the communication of every good office 
and gift. It will ever lead the Christian who has this 
world's good, to distribute to the necessity of others ; 
especially to them that are of the household of faith ; and 
when he sees a brother have need, not to shut up his 
bowels of compassion from him : " Charge them that 
are rich in this world— 4hat they do good, that they be 
rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to com- 
municate ; laying up in store for themselves a good 
foundation against the time to come." — 1 Tim. vi. 
17-19. " Withhold not good from them to whom 
it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do 
it. Say not to thy neighbour, Go, and come again, 
and to-morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee. ,r 
— Prov. hi. 27, 28. 



44 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

Some important conclusions may be drawn from this 
last passage of Scripture, as exemplifying the different 
forms which this vice of covetousness can assume, 
and the various covers under which it may be veiled* 
One of those most frequently to be observed, is the 
endeavour to delay and postpone the payment of lawful 
debts, even where there may be no intention ultimately 
to refuse, or altogether to evade discharging the obliga- 
tion. A covetous debtor, unwilling in every case and 
slow to part with his money, will seek many pretexts 
to avoid immediate payment, and in numerous cases to 
the great inconvenience, and it may be the positive loss 
or even ruin, of his disappointed creditor. How many 
persons, too, if not always and directly from the same 
avaricious motives, but in part from a carelessness and 
indifference scarcely less culpable, are in the habit of 
delaying payment of their personal or household accounts 
to tradesmen, shopkeepers, and merchants, or to the 
domestic servants or labourers in their employment ; thus 
not only inflicting immediate loss on the individuals, 
but encouraging or compelling them to adopt a similar 
conduct towards others, deranging the regular course of 
fair dealing, and weakening the inducements to lawful 
industry. In these, and similar ways, too generally prac- 
tised not to be at once recognized and acknowledged,, 
an incalculable amount of injury and distress is occa- 
sioned in society through a violation or disregard of the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE.. 45- 

plainest dictates of honesty ; chiefly, too, on the part of 
those who, holding the higher stations in the commu- 
nity, ought rather to be examples of moral conduct. To 
the mere man of the world this may unhappily appear 
a light matter. But that any one professing obedience 
to Christian precept as the rule of duty should so act, is 
to be accounted for on no principle but the blinding 
influence and canker of a covetous spirit. 

Farther, and in connexion with this evil and injustice 
of procrastination, there are many other ways of sayings 
" to-morrow I will give," and which are exemplified 
perhaps as often in the conduct of professing Christians 
as in that of any other class of men ; and which, though 
not amounting to injustice in the strict and legal import 
of the term, are nevertheless opposed to the spirit of 
liberal charity, and can only be traced to the same pre- 
vailing passion, that love of money, which is the root of 
evil. These shall be very shortly noticed, but are well 
deserving of attention frpm those who do not deny the 
duty of communicating to others, but who delay and 
linger in the discharge of the duty so acknowledged, 
and habitually put off to some later day their works of 
kindness and compassion. Such is the case, too com- 
mon in practice, of those who imagine, or at least act as 
if they imagined, that the obligation is sufficiently dis- 
charged by bequeathing a portion of their goods for the 
benefit of others, for the relief of the needy and indi- 



46 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

gent, or for similar objects of benevolence, to take effect 
at the period of their death ; while they continue to live in 
opulence, and retain their large and superfluous wealth to 
that last hour. However such persons may disguise it to 
themselves, the reservation is founded upon, and resolves 
into that love of money which is covetousness. To 
accumulate the treasures of silver and gold as long as 
that accumulation is practicable, to grasp them with 
tenacity and eagerness, notwithstanding the calls of 
duty for the supply of the necessitous, or the promotion 
of objects of usefulness, and to part with them only 
when they can no longer be enjoyed or held, is not to 
occupy the talent, or to fulfil the stewardship for which 
they shall be called to give an account. For to such 
the hour is actually come, and the Lord has already 
returned before that talent has been laid out. Let not 
this deceit be practised, or this flattery laid to the soul. 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," in the deeds of 
love and compassion, as well as in works of labour and of 
toil, " do it with thy might," and in this the accepted 
season, " for there is no work, nor device, nor know- 
ledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." — 
Eccles. ix. 10. " The time is short ; it remaineth that . . . 
they who buy be as though they possessed not, and they 
that use this world as though they used it not.*" — 
1 Cor. vii. 29,30, 31. 

* So rendered according to the version 1599. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 47 

More fatal stili is that other delusion which men 
frequently have practised upon themselves, to divide the 
period of life itself in certain partitions between God and 
the world ; in which they have commonly allotted the 
largest share and portion to the latter ; allowing them- 
selves in the pleasures and ambitious pursuits, of this pre- 
sent life till the close of it, which they dedicate to God's 
service in acts of devotion and deeds of charity. This 
compromise is evidently full of hazard, for the expected 
time may not be given. But if it should, the allowed 
sin, w T hich enters into the calculation,, is destructive of all 
integrity and uprightness. Besides, God will have the 
first and best fruit, both of the affections and the sub- 
stance, from all his creatures ; and they who intend or 
contemplate this deception can have no hope for peace 
in the end ; they must expect to lie down in sorrow. 

Thus it has been attempted to ascertain the nature 
and quality of covetousness, and those conditions and 
limitations, as they are to be collected from the word of 
God, under which temporal possessions may lawfully be 
acquired and used. The result is, that the pursuit and 
enjoyment of them becomes sinful only when they are 
allowed to hold an undue place in our affections ; when 
they are not ascribed to God, and accepted as gifts from 
him, being sanctified both by prayer and praise : praise 
for the mercy, and prayer to be kept from evil in the 
enjoyment of them, so that they may not be abused by 



48 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

misapplication to improper purposes, or not improved to 
the ends for which they are given. The statement may 
be illustrated by reference to some examples, taken 
from Scripture history, of individual character and 
conduct. 

Abraham was a man of wealth ; for the Lord had 
prospered him, and he " was very rich in cattle, in 
silver, and in gold." — Gen. xiii. 2. Yet Abraham was 
honoured above all men ; for he was called and chosen 
to be the father of the faithful, and was distinguished by 
the high and peculiar name of the Friend of God. But 
his heart was not set upon his riches ; nor did his great 
possessions make him slow to obey the divine call when 
summoned to leave his country, and to go into a land 
which he knew not. And when, on account of their 
great substance, the land was too narrow for him and his 
kinsman, and for their flocks and herds, he was not 
willing that strife should arise between his kinsman and 
himself, on account of any preference or choice of ter- 
ritory. " If thou wilt take the left hand," he said to Lot, 
" then I will go to the right ; or, if thou depart to the 
right hand, I will go to the left." — Gen. xiii. 9. And 
when the king of Sodom offered him his goods, in order 
to propitiate his favour, he was equally disinterested. 
For Abraham said to the king, " I have lift up my hand 
unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of 
heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 49 

to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that 
is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham 
rich ; save only that which the young men have eaten, 
and the portion of the men which went with me." — 
Gen. xiv. 22-24. He accepted the offer, only so far 
as ministered to the relief and immediate necessity of 
those who accompanied him. 

Lot also, like Abraham, was a man of great posses- 
sions ; yet he was a " just man," and a servant of the 
Lord, and enjoyed his favour. His w 7 ealth was not his 
chief good ; or, at least, did not continue to be so 
esteemed by him, though at one period he appears to 
have been actuated by the ensnaring desire of increasing 
his earthly possessions, at the expense of higher princi- 
ples of duly ; and he was spared in the destruction of 
the cities of the plain, " the Lord being merciful unto 
him." He was even honoured to intercede successfully 
for Zoar : and God said unto him, " See, I have ac- 
cepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not 
overthrow 7 this city for the which thou hast spoken." — 
Gen. xix. 21. The patriarch Jacob increased, through 
God's blessing, in wealth as w r ell as in family. And we 
find him ascribing that prosperity, not to his own arm 
or his own desert, but directly to the providence and 
unmerited goodness of God. " And Jacob said, O 
God of my father Abraham, and God of my father 
Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, return unto thy 



50 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with 
thee ; I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and 
of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant ; 
for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am 
become two bands." — Gen. xxxii. 9, 10. And to Esau 
he said, " These are the children which God hath 
graciously given thy servant ;" and of the presents which 
he offered to him, he said, " Take, I pray thee, my 
blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath 
dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." — 
Gen. xxxiii. 5-11. 

Job affords another example, and, in some respects, 
still more remarkable, on this subject. That patriarch 
was, in regard to earthly possessions and honour, " the 
greatest of all the men of the East : his substance was 
seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and 
five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, 
and a very great household." — Job i. 3. Yet he was a 
" perfect and upright man, one that feared God and 
eschewed evil." — Ver. 8. And when Satan was per- 
mitted to sift him, uy cutting off at one blow the whole 
of his worldly riches and store, he held fast his integrity, 
and refused to let it go : for Job said, " Naked came 
I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return 
thither : The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken 
away; blessed be the name of the Lord."— Ver. 21. 
Neither was this a transient burst of piety y or effort of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 51 

resignation ; for, in the midst of his deepest affliction 
and aggravated grief, he could appeal to the Searcher 
of hearts, that in his prosperity as in his adversity his 
heart was right with God. " If I have withheld the 
poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the 
widow to fail ; or have eaten my morsel alone, and the 
fatherless hath not eaten thereof. ..if I have seen any 
perish for want of clothing, or any poor without cover- 
ing ; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were 
not warmed with the fleece of my sheep., .then let mine 
arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be 
broken from the bone.,. if I have made gold my hope, 
or said to the fine gold thou art my confidence ; if I 
rejoiced because my wealth w r as great, and because mine 
hand had gotten much." — Job xxxi. 16-25. And this 
appeal was received, and answered by God; for he jus- 
tified his servant Job, and also made him intercessor for 
his friends. " Take unto you now," said the Lord to 
them, " seven bullocks, ^and seven rams, and go to my 
servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering : 
and my servant Job shall pray for you ; for him will I 
accept." — Job xlii. 8. " The Lord also accepted Job . . . 
also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 
Then came there unto him all his brethren ...and com- 
forted him . . . every man also gave him a piece of money, 
and every one an ear-ring of gold. So the Lord blessed 
the latter end of Job more than the beginning," &e. — - 



52 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

Job xlii. 9-15. Here we have the striking picture of 
one who, though greatly tried, was blessed in his 
wealth; for he made a godly use of his possessions. 
He visited the fatherless and widows in their affliction ; 
he w r as ready to distribute, willing to communicate ; 
and the cause which he knew not, he searched out. 
Whether the history be received as a narrative of real 
events, or as a sublime and touching allegory, " writ- 
ten by inspiration of God for our learning," it teaches, 
among the other instructions with which it is pregnant, 
that the greatest abundance of earthly treasure may be 
received from God, and enjoyed with his approbation 
and blessing. 

The example of Solomon affords evidence of a similar 
kind. Temporal honour and wealth were not the lead- 
ing objects of his desire; and, therefore, God was pleased 
to bestow them : "for king Solomon exceeded all the 
kings of the earth for riches," as well as for " wisdom." 
God conferred them also with a farther and higher 
blessing ; for he gave him therewith " largeness of 
heart," to use these gifts aright. And, accordingly, 
when the Lord had given him " rest on every side," 
his first care was, not to live at ease in Sion, employing 
his wealth in personal and selfish gratification, but to 
build an house to the name of the Lord his God, as it 
had also been in the heart of his father to do. — 1 Kings 
v. 5. It is true that, in his latter age, the heart of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 53 

Solomon was " turned away after other gods," and that 
" the Lord was angry with Solomon ;" and a message 
was sent that " the kingdom should be rent from him, 
and given to his servant." But the transgression of that 
idolatry, of which he was guilty, came not through covet- 
ousness, but by another and a different snare ; and, in 
the course of a long and prosperous reign, before this 
great departure, he afforded an example of the sancti- 
fied use of worldly honour and prosperity. 

In the character of Nehemiah we see another beau- 
tiful instance of this pious and disinterested spirit, 
which leads to the contempt of selfish gain, and to the 
employment of riches, when possessed, to the relief 
and comfort of others, and to the honour and glory of 
God. While engaged in rebuilding the holy city, he 
not only rebuked those who exacted of their brethren, 
but showed himself an example of liberality in all points, 
refusing the accustomed taxes and tribute which had 
been paid to former governors for the maintenance 
of their state, knowing that they were a poor and op- 
pressed people ; and this he did because of the fear of 
the Lord. " From the time that I was appointed to be 
their governor in the land of Judah, — that is, twelve 
years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of 
the governor. But the former governors that had been 
before me were chargeable unto the people, and had 
taken of them bread and wine, beside forty shekels of 



§4 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

silver ; but so did not I, because of the fear of God. 
Yea, also, I continued in the work of this wall ; neither 
bought we any land. . . . Moreover, there were at my 
table an hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, be- 
side those that came unto us from among the heathen 
that are about us," — thus feeding the stranger and the 
alien, — " yet for all this required not I the bread of the 
governor, because the bondage was heavy upon this 
people. Think upon me, my God, for good, according 
to all that I have done for this people."— -Nehem. v. 
14-19. 

Similar lessons are taught in those historical passages 
of the New Testament, which have reference to the 
present subject. Joseph was " a rich man of Arima- 
thea," and " an honourable counsellor ;" but " he also 
himself was Jesus' disciple, and " one" of those " who 
waited for the kingdom of God." He was not even 
ashamed to confess his Master after the crucifixion, 
when his own immediate disciples deserted him and fled. 
For " he went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the 
body of Jesus." He considered it an honour to receive 
that precious and sacred deposit ; and he " bought fine 
linen, and wrapped the body therein, and laid it in his 
own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock." 
Evangelists — passim. Here we have an example of 
strong and disinterested piety, combined with wealth and 
high station among men. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 55 

Zaccheus was " the chief among the publicans; and 
he was rich." But salvation came to his house, and if 
he had formerly yielded to the temptation which his 
calling exposed him to, he appears to have brought 
forth the fruits of repentance, when touched by the 
Saviour's condescending love ; and he, too, followed 
Jesus, and was honoured to receive him as his guest. 

The Ethiopian was an officer of trust and authority 
under Candace, the Queen, and had the charge of all 
her treasure. He may reasonably be supposed, there- 
fore, to have been himself a man of more than or- 
dinary wealth. But he was also a religious man r who 
searched the Scriptures, and who had " come up to 
Jerusalem to worship." We find, accordingly, that 
God favoured him, and the Holy Spirit instructed 
Philip, by a special message, to seek out this worship- 
per ; and that when " Jesus was preached unto him," he 
received the seal of baptism, and H went on his way re- 
joicing." — Acts viii. 27-39. 

Crispus, " the chief ruler of the synagogue," (who 
may therefore be supposed a man of wealth as well as 
note,) " believed on the Lord with all his house."— 
Acts xviii. 8. 

Dionysius, the Areopagite, a supreme judge among 
the Athenians, was among the number of those who 
" clave to Paul and believed." — Acts xvii. 34. 

These are some of the instances where riches were 

c 



56 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

possessed with godliness, and were not held to the hurt 
of the owners thereof. If we take some examples of 
the contrary, we shall see for what reason their wealth 
or their covetousness excluded them from the kingdom 
of God, or involved them in difficulties and danger. 

Lot, though a servant of the Lord, and in the end 
delivered by him, in the overthrow of the wicked, was 
at an earlier time tainted with -this vice, and coveting 
the plain of Jordan, though inhabited by the ungodly, 
was exposed to many severe trials, and much jeopardy. 

The rich man in the parable, who " lifted up his eyes 
in hell, being in torment," is described as one who 
" was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sump- 
tuously every day ;" and not only did he thus consume his 
wealth in sensual indulgence, but he allowed his poor 
and suffering fellow-creature to lie at his gate, day after 
day, unassisted and unheeded. He is not condemned 
for his riches, but for his abuse of them, and for the 
hardness of his heart. — Luke xvi. 19-23. 

The ruler of the Jews, who professed to have kept 
the commandments from his youth up, was unwilling to 
be a disciple of Jesus, at the expense of parting with his 
goods, and distributing to the poor. He was covetous 
in heart, and his love of the world and the things of the 
world prevented him from following Christ. — Luke xviii. 

Demetrius was u opposed to that way" which Paul 
preached ; and we are furnished with the reason by the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 57 

sacred historian ; namely, that he was in the receipt of 
great gains by his craft of image-making ; and the love 
of money prevailed, and shut his ears against the truth." 
— Acts xix. 24 . 

It is unnecessary to pursue these illustrations farther. 
Enough has been said to show from the word of God, 
and it is confirmed by the daily experience of human 
life, that it is not money, but the love of it, which is 
the root of evil. 



58 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 



SECTION II. 

WHEREIN CONSISTS THE EVIL AND SIN OF 
COVETOUSNESS? 

Having examined the nature and varieties of this pas- 
sion of covetousness, it may next be inquired, Wherein 
the sinfulness of it consists? To a certain extent this 
question has necessarily been anticipated in the preced- 
ing remarks, and it might appear sufficient merely to 
refer to those passages of Scripture which have been 
already quoted, and some others of a similar import. 
But, in order to understand more clearly the ground 
and reasons of that condemnation which is passed against 
this sin with so much earnest repetition in the word of 
God, it may not be unprofitable to examine this part of 
the subject somewhat more closely, by attempting to 
analyze the effect and operation of the passion of covet- 
ousness upon the heart and mind of the individual, and 
as affecting his character and duty toward God and 
toward man. 

And here it is proper to advert first to the very dif- 



THE BAR 0£ SCRIPTURE. 59 

ferent light in which the pursuit of worldly objects, 
whether these be riches themselves, or that honour and 
reputation which attend success in the prosecution 
of them, appears in the sight of God, from that in 
which it is seen by men. The world in general looks 
upon the possession of temporal wealth as a. great and 
positive good ; and approves and admires the skill and 
industry, and various resources of those who are so busily 
engaged in the pursuit. Their assiduity is commended, 
and held up as an example for imitation ; and their 
success, though it may be an occasion of envy, is 
secretly applauded from an inward sympathy, and the 
immediate or more distant prospect of advantage to 
accrue, or as an omen of like success to follow similar 
exertion. Again, the rich man is held in honour for 
his riches, independent of other qualifications ; his so 
ciety is sought, and acquaintance courted, and a 
multitude of willing retainers minister to his wishes. 
Neither do worldly persons in general stop to inquire 
by what means wealth has been obtained by its owner. 
The actual possession of it, and the influence which it 
gives, are usually the only objects of consideration, and 
seldom the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the acquisi 
tion. 

" The rich hath many friends." — Prov. xiv. 20. 
" Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is sepa- 
rated from his neighbour , . , Many will entreat the favour 



60 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

of the prince ; and every man is a friend to him that 
giveth gifts. All the brethren of the poor do hate him ; 
how much more do his friends go far from him ? he 
pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him." 
— Prov. xix. 4-6-7. 

It is one of the most unpleasant features, and one of 
the worst symptoms of society in our own country, 
Britain, so highly favoured by providence, that money 
is accounted the measure of all things, not in commer- 
cial exchange merely, but in the intercourse of man 
with man ; that wealth is the most certain avenue to 
public deference, as well as the great object of individual 
pursuit. Hence the separation so strongly marked be- 
tween those comparatively few who are the possessors 
of great riches, and all other classes of the community, 
and that opposition of interests and alienation of feeling 
which are thus generated. Nor is this false estimate of 
reputation confined to mere men of the world, Does 
it not prevail to a great extent among all classes of the 
community, and even with many of those who make the 
most open profession of the Christian faith ? 

But what, on the other hand, is God's estimate of 
this wisdom of man ? "He accepteth not the persons 
of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the 
poor." — Job. xxxiv. 19, " Be not thou afraid when 
one is made rich, when the glory of his house is in- 
creased ; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. bi 

away ; his glory shall not descend after him ; though 
while he lived he blessed his soul : and men will praise 
thee when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to 
the generation of his fathers : they shall never see 
light." — Ps. xlix. 16-19. Here is the opposition and 
contrast distinctly and forcibly brought forward between 
the divine judgment and the false estimate of man* 
And it is marked in still stronger language by the same 
inspired pen, where it is said, " The wicked boasteth 
of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom 
the Lord abhorreth." — Ps. x. 3. And what were the 
first words with which Jesus opened his mouth and ad- 
dressed his disciples? " Blessed are ye poor," blessed 
in being saved from the snares of w r ealth and deceitful- 
ness of riches ; blessed in not having their affections set 
upon earthly things, not seeking the honour that is from 
men. When " the Pharisees, who were covetous ...de- 
rided him... Jesus said unto them, ye are they which 
justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your 
hearts ; for that which is highly esteemed among men is 
abomination in the sight of God." — Luke xvi. 14-15. 
There are, indeed, some features of this passion, 
which, independent of religious considerations, have 
always rendered it contemptible, if not hateful, to gener- 
ous minds. Much has been said and written of the 
disquietude and disappointment attending great earthly 
possessions ; the slight tenure by which they are held 



62 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

even during the enjoyment ; and their total unfitness 
to be the chief portion of a reasonable being. The 
vanity of riches has been a fertile theme for the moralist 
in every age ; and the inordinate pursuit of them has 
been condemned by the wise and good among men of 
all times, as a base and unworthy occupation. 

How many have there been of the great and honoured 
men among the heathen of ancient times, who might be 
our teachers in this moral lesson : of those 
Who could contemn 
Riches though offered from the hand of kings. 

And, among those who have not been actuated by- 
higher motives than regard to the opinion of their fel- 
low-men, we see cases in every age where wealth and 
high estate, with all their advantages, have been freely 
abandoned ; and 

To give a kingdom has been thought 
Greater, and nobler done, and to lay down 
Far more magnanimous than to assume. 

How well has the vanity of earthly riches and grandeur 
been proved by those frequent and memorable reverses 
in the history of nations and individuals, where they, 
who were the pride and excellency of all the earth, who 
had set their nest on high, and sat, as it were, alone in 
the midst of their treasures, have been in a moment 
cast down from their summit, stripped of their great 
possessions, emptied of their pride, and buried, it may 
be, with the burial of an ass. Nor is it necessary to 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 63 

dwell on the character and history of those more private 
and obscure individuals, who have wasted their existence 
in penury and want, to amass a useless store, the slaves 
of mammon, who have toiled and dug into the bowels 
of the earth to collect the glittering dust, in whom the 
very lineaments of human nature appear to have been 
obliterated, whose lives were wretched, and whose me- 
mories rot. Such men have been ridiculed by the 
painter, and lashed by the satirist, in every age. 

But let us turn rather to the weighty and authorita- 
tive language of holy writ, and hear the voice of inspir- 
ation, where it proclaims the end of the worldly and 
avaricious man, and the emptiness of his hope. First, 
It is a life full of disquietude: " Surely every man 
walketh in a vain show ; surely they are disquieted in 
vain : he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall 
gather them." — Ps. xxxix. 6. " In the revenues of the 
wicked is trouble." — Prov. xv. 6. "It is vain for you to 
rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows ;" 
— that is, of carefulness and trouble.— Psalm cxxvii. 2. 
We see thus how opposite are the state and feeling 
of the covetous man from those of the believer in 
Jesus. For the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, and 
peace ; but the fruits of covetousness are care and 
trouble, anxiety and distrust. Secondly, The acqui- 
sition does not bring even present satisfaction, for the 

appetite still increases bv what it feeds upon, and this 

'c 2 



64 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

craving of the mind is never sated or allayed.— 
" Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of 
man" — that is, of the avaricious man — "are never satis- 
fied/'— Prov. xxvii. 20. " He that loveth silver shall 
not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance 
with increase : this also is vanity. When goods in- 
crease, they are increased that eat them ; and what 
good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding 
of them with their eyes.*. The abundance of the rich will 
not suffer him to sleep." — Eccles. v. 10—12. Thirdly, 
They are not a foundation on which to build any hope 
of happiness. They are, at best, transient in their 
nature ; and they often bring ruin and destruction upon 
their possessor. " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that 
which is not? for riches certainly make themselves 
wings ; they fly away, as an eagle toward heaven."— 
Prov. xxiii. v. " As the flower of the grass he" — the rich 
man — " shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen 
with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the 
flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of 
it perisheth ; so also shall the rich man fade away in 
his ways." — James i. 10, 11. Lo, this is the man 
that made not God his strength, but trusted in the 
abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his 
wickedness."— Ps. lii. 7. " Riches profit not in the day 
of wrath." — Prov. xi. 4. " He that trusteth in his 
riches shall fall." — Ver. 28. " The Lord casteth away 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 65 

the substance of the wicked." — Prov. x. 3. " Behold 
these are the ungodly who prosper in the world ; they 
increase in riches.... Surely thou didst set them in slip- 
pery places; thou castedst them down into destruction. . . . 
As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou 
awakest, thou shalt despise their image." — Ps. lxxiii. 
12-18-20. " As the partridge sitteth upon eggs, and 
hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not 
by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and 
at his end shall be a fool." — Jerem. xvii. 11. Of 
Moab, it is said, " because thou hast trusted in thy 
works, and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken." 
— Jerem. xlviii. 7. And of Babylon, " O thou that 
dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine 
end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness." — 
Jerem. li. 13. " In one hour so great riches is come 
to nought." — Rev. xviii. 17. And in the final over- 
throw of the Israelites, it is said, that " they shall cast 
their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be re- 
moved ; their silver and their gold shall not be able to 
deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord : they 
shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels." — 
Ezek. vii. 19. The ground of the rich man, in the 
parable, brought forth plentifully > but when he thought 
within himself, " thou hast much goods laid up for many 
years. . . . God said unto him, thou fool, this night thy soul 
shall be required of thee ; then whose shall those things 



66 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

be which thou hast provided?" — Luke xii. 19. And 
the awful sentence of retribution for riches misapplied, 
is, " Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things ; 
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." — 
Luke xvi. 25. " Go to now, ye rich men, howl and 
weep for your miseries that shall come upon you." — 
James v. 1, 

Such, then, are the vanity and the danger of riches, 
considered as an ultimate object of pursuit ; and such 
the disappointment and miserable end of those who 
make gold their hope, and the fine gold their confi- 
dence. 

But it may be shown still more particularly, wherein 
the evil and sin of this disposition consist, and what are 
the grounds of the many awful denunciations against it 
which are contained in the word of God, not only as re- 
gards this life, but also that which is to come. In one 
view, it might be sufficient merely to say, that as it is ex- 
pressly forbidden by God, and contrary to his will, the 
Christian requires no other motive or reason to influ- 
ence him in flying from that as from every other sin. 
" Beware of covetousness." " Love not the world, 
neither the things of the world." This is the command 
of God. But the force of the prohibition will be more 
fully understood and felt, when we consider the effect 
of covetousness upon the heart and mind ; from a view 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 6*7 

of which, the Christian may be awakened to a greater 
jealousy over himself, and be made more earnest to 
shun the very appearance and first rising of this pas- 
sion in his breast. The sin of covetousness may be 
considered in its effect upon the character, under these 
three heads, of spiritual, intellectual, and moral degra- 
dation. 

1. Of its effect on the spiritual character and 
condition. 

This effect and influence may be considered under 
four several aspects. 1. In so far as the love of earthly 
possessions is strong, and the attainment of them an 
object of anxious and inordinate pursuit, in the same 
proportion are the thoughts and desires necessarily with- 
drawn from things heavenly and spiritual. Riches have 
been elegantly, as well as justly, said to be the 
hindrances, or baggage, of virtue, impedimenta virtutis, 
a word for which our language does not afford a single, 
or full, equivalent. As the train and magazine of an 
army are an impediment to the easy and rapid move- 
ments of the soldier, so is great wealth a hindrance to 
the advance of virtue. Much more is this true of the 
Christian's warfare and spiritual progress. The rich 
man is so hampered with his possessions, so encumbered 
by his habiliments and stores, that he has not alacrity* 
and does not find space to go forward in the narrow 



68 COVETOTJSNESS BROUGHT TO 

way. " No man that warreth entangleth himself with 
the affairs of this life ; that he may please him who hath 
chosen him to be a soldier." — 2 Tim. ii. 4. 

Farther, not only is the attention occupied by the 
cares of life, but the heart also is engaged. He whose 
desire is much bent on the acquisition of temporal 
wealth, will not have his affection supremely placed 
upon the inheritance which is eternal. " Where your 
treasure is, there will your heart be also." The effect 
may be greater or less, according to the intenseness of 
the desire and the ardour of the pursuit ; but the ten- 
dency of covetousness, in every case, and in all its 
forms, is to lessen the apparent value of spiritual things, 
and unduly to magnify the importance of things earthly 
and sensual. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind, and with all thy strength, is the first 
commandment." But the avaricious man cannot 
give obedience to it, for he has another object and 
another desire which comes in competition with it. 
His mind and heart are transferred from God the 
Creator, and placed upon the creature. And so it 
has ever proved, that as the abundance of this world's 
goods has increased with any, so has the temptation to 
forget God likewise increased and become stronger. 
Of the effect of worldly prosperity in thus impairing the 
health of the soul, in producing an indisposition to 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 69 

God's ways and commandments, and preventing that 
surrender of the heart which he requires, we have abund- 
ant proofs in Scripture history ; and we need be at no 
loss to find abundant proofs in daily life, of the same 
influence and results which are so strongly marked in 
the description of the Israelites. " They have not 
served thee. . .in the large and fat land which thou 
gavest before them ;" and therefore in that land were 
they made servants. — Nehem. ix. 35. " Jeshurun 
waxed fat, and kicked ; . . .then he forsook God, which 
made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salva- 
tion." — Deut. xxxii. 15, " Beware," says Moses, "that 
thou forget not the Lord thy God... lest when thou 
hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, 
and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks 
multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and 
all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be 
lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God." — Deut. 
viii. 11-14. And how fully was the prediction verified, 
notwithstanding these warnings. For " they soon forgat 
his works; they waited not for his counsel; but lusted 
exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the 
desert. And he gave them their request ; but sent 
leanness into their soul." — Ps. cvi. Of worldly men 
it is said, " they spend their days in wealth, and in a 
moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto 
God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge 



70 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

of thy ways : what is the Almighty, that we should serve 
him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto 
him?" — Job xxi. 13-15. From a dread of such effects 
of prosperity, we find Agur deprecating riches ; " lest I 
be full and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord ? " 

The worldly man, who is steeped in the cares of this 
life, soon wearies of the service of God, as an impedi- 
ment to his pursuits, saying, " when will the new moon 
be gone, that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath, that 
we may set forth wheat?" — Amos viii. 5. And his 
prayers are hindered, or do not receive an answer, or 
bring down a blessing ; for they are carnal. " Ye ask, 
and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may con- 
sume it upon your lusts." — James iv. 3. 

As a covetous disposition thus impairs the spiritual 
health, and indisposes for the service of God, it is ne- 
cessarily, and for the same reason, a great obstacle to 
the reception of divine truth, and has always proved one 
of the great hindrances to the Gospel in the minds 
and hearts of men. When our Saviour and his apos- 
tles preached the kingdom of God, with how little effect 
did they commonly address the men of the world ! The 
young man whom Jesus desired to sell that which he 
had, and give to the poor, " when he heard that saying, 
went away sorrowful : for he had great possessions." — 
Matt. xix. 22. Though assured that so he should have 
treasure in heaven, he was unwilling to part with his 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 71 

treasure on earth ; he would gladly have possessed 
both, but was unable to sacrifice the latter, and was 
overcome by the temptation. Of those who were 
invited to the marriage feast, it is said that " they 
made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, 
another to his merchandise." — Matt. xxii. 5 ; or, as 
narrated by another evangelist, " they all with one 
consent began to make excuse. The first said unto 
him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must 
needs go and see it : I pray thee have me excused. 
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, 
and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused." 
— Luke xiv„ 18, 19. " And the Pharisees also, who 
were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided 
him." — Luke xvi. 14. Thus is the Gospel message 
still neglected by worldly and avaricious men. " If our 
Gospel be hid," says the apostle, " it is hid to them 
that are lost; in whom the God of this world hath 
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the 
light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image 
of God, should shine unto them." — 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4 a 
They are engrossed with things of the earth, and will 
not give time or heed to the things which belong to 
their everlasting peace. Hence it is, that " not many 
rich, not many noble," (in the estimation of man,) are 
among the number of those who are called. Or, if 
thev do for a season listen to the outward call, the good 



72 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

word is as seed sown among thorns; for " the cares of 
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the 
word, and he becometh unfruitful." — Mat. xiii. 22. If 
they put their hand to the plough for a time, how often 
are they found looking back to the world, and walking 
no more with Christ ! " And Jesus looked round 
about, and, (finding the young man gone,) saith to his 
disciples, how hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of God ! And the disciples were 
astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and 
saith unto them, children, how hard is it for them that 
trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God." — Mark 
x. 23, 24, And to testify how strong is the temptation, 
and how difficult to resist the influence of wealth, it is 
added in these words of allegory, " It is easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich 
man to enter into the kingdom of God." — Ver. 25. 

2. As a covetous disposition indisposes the mind to 
the contemplation and love of spiritual things, so it also 
engenders or betrays a want of confidence in God, and 
of trust in his providence ; of that firm and habitual de- 
pendence upon him for life, as w T ell as godliness, which 
he requires from his creatures, and which is character- 
istic of his people. In the exercise of this trust, the 
manna was to be gathered daily by the Israelites, and 
if greater provision was made, the residue corrupted and 
became unprofitable. The Christian is authorised to 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 73 

pray for his daily bread in like manner ; and, if actuated 
by this principle of faith and submission, the supply will 
be suited to his necessities ; he that gathers much will 
have " nothing over," and he that gathers little will 
have no "lack." — -Exodus xvi. 18. The covetous man 
is an unbeliever in the word and promises of God. 
" Trust in the Lord, and do good... and verily thou 
shalt be fed... I have been young, and now am old ; yet 
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed 
begging bread." — Ps. xxxvii. 3, 25. " If God so 
clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and 
to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more 
clothe you, O ye of little faith ? "—Mat. vi. 30. " Let 
your conversation" — your life and walk in the world — 
" be without covetousness, and be content with such 
things as ye have ; for he hath said I will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee." — Heb. xiii. 5. " Casting all 
your care upon him, for he careth for you." — 1 Peter 
v. 7. " Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow, 
we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, 
and buy and sell and get gain ; whereas ye know not 
what shall be on the morrow ... For that ye ought to 
say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or 
that." — James iv. 13, 15. The believer rests upon the 
promises of God for all things, both those pertaining to 
this life and to that which is to come. But the man of 
the world, above all the greedy and avaricious man. 



74 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

virtually denies them ; he will provide for himself, trust- 
ing to his own wisdom, and his own foresight ; he 
would make himself independent of God, and lay up 
a store of goods for many years, vainly and impiously 
hoping that he will be thus placed above the accidents 
of time and change. 

3. Connected with this feature of his character, 
which resolves into unbelief, is that pride and elevation 
of heart which is the usual concomitant and effect of 
great temporal prosperity. How naturally and how 
often does the man, whose whole mind and exertions 
have been employed in amassing riches, make them not 
only his boast, but his confidence. Instead of submit- 
ting the disposal of his lot to God, he resolves to be the 
artificer of his own fortune. But what says the Lord 
to this spirit of independence ? It follows after the 
words last quoted from the apostle : " But now ye re- 
joice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil." — James 
iv. 16. Instead of resting upon the Lord, he trusts in his 
own arm, and leans upon his own understanding, and 
makes his great possessions the rock of his strength and 
his fortress. But, " woe to them," saith the Almighty, 
..." that stay on horses and trust in chariots because they 
are many... but they look not unto the Holy One of 
Israel, neither seek the Lord." — Isaiah xxxi. 1. " They 
...trust in their wealth/ and boast themselves in the 
multitude of their riches." — Ps. xlix. 6. "Is not this 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 75 

great Babylon that I have built," said Nebuchadnezzar^ 
in that day of his glory, and that hour which ushered his 
fall, " for the house of the kingdom* by the might of my 
power, and for the honour of my majesty ?"— Dan. iv. 30* 
" Thine heart," says the prophet to Tyrus, "is lifted 
up because of thy riches : therefore thus saith the Lord 
God, because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of 
God, behold therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, 
the terrible of the nations." — Ezek. xxviii. 5-7. " Be- 
ware," said Moses to Israel, " lest. ..when all that thou 
hast is multiplied, &c, thou say in thine heart, my 
power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this 
wealth." — Deut. viii. 17. Pride, arising from the "ful- 
ness of bread," was among the sins which called 'down 
the judgment of God upon Sodom.—- Ezek. xvi. 49. 
w The rich man's wealth," says Solomon, " is his strong 
city, and as an high wall in his own conceit."— -Prov. 
xviii. 11. M According to their pasture, so were they fill- 
ed: they were filled, and their heart was exalted ; there- 
fore have they forgotten me." — Hos. xiii. 6. " They 
say, have we not taken to us horns by our own strength." 
— Amos vi. 13. Such is the fruit of unsanctified riches 5 
whereas it is the " name of the Lord" which is w the 
strong tower" of the righteous, where he runneth and is 
safe. — Prov. xviii. 10. " Lo," says the Psalmist of 
the proud and wicked man, " this is the man that made 



76 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of 
his riches." — Ps. lii. 7. 

4. But not only does this sin of covetousness impair 
the spiritual health and strength by drawing the mind 
unduly towards the earth, by lessening trust and reliance 
upon God's providence, and by generating pride of 
heart and presumption ; being connected thus with 
spiritual decay, unbelief, and hardness of heart; but the 
covetous man is farther represented in Scripture as an 
offender and rebel against the honour and majesty of 
God. He not only refuses to obey the injunction, " My 
son, give me thy heart," but sins against the positive 
commandment, " Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me." We know that idolatry consists not merely in 
the worship of graven images, and the outward ser- 
vice paid to the work of man's hands, but " in setting 
up any idol in the heart," through which we are 
" estranged from the service of God," and giving 
it the homage which is due to him alone. — Ezek. xiv. 
3-5. As the covetous man gives his affections to the 
world, so he pays his homage to its authority, and says 
of its possessions, in reality, if not in words, " these be 
my gods ;" he worships them as his chief good, and 
sacrifices to the acquisition of them his talents and his 
time. Hence is he characterized in the word of God 
as an idolater* 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 77 

It is remarkable that the heathen nations, even in 
their most corrupted times, and when altogether given 
to open idolatry and image worship, did not personify 
or consecrate a shrine to this passion, among the multi- 
tude of their false deities. 

Quandoquidem inter nos sanctissima divitiarum . 
Majestas ; etsi, funesta Pecunia, templo 
Nondum habitas; nullas nummorum ereximus aras, 
Ut colitur Pax, atque Fides, Victoria, Virtus, &c* 
Gold is the greatest god ; though yet we see 
No temples raised to money's majesty, 
No altars fuming to her power divine, 
Such as to valour, peace, and virtue shine, 
And faith and concord. 

But, in the pure morality of the gospel, idolatry con- 
sists not merely in outward form and worship, but in the 
homage of the mind ; in setting up any creature of our 
own affections and device in opposition to his authority, 
and thus dethroning him in our hearts. " For this ye 
know," says the apostle, " that no covetous man, who 
is an idolator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of 
Christ and of God." — Ephes. v. 5. " Mortify, there- 
fore, your members which are upon the earth... inordi- 
nate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, 
which is idolatry." — Col. iii. 5. 

We see, in the history of the Israelites, how close 
the connexion was between their inordinate desire of 
earthly things, and the sin of idolatry, even in its out- 

* Juvenal, 



78 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

ward and grossest form. " They lusted exceedingly in 
the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert ; and he 
gave them their request, but sent leanness into their 
soul ;" and it is added almost immediately, " they made 
a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. . * 
they forgat God their Saviour."-— Ps. cvi. 14-2U The 
Psalmist refers to the account given by Moses of what 
passed among the people while he was absent on the 
Mount: " They turned aside quickly," out of the way 
which God commanded them ; for they "made them a 
molten calf, and worshipped it, and sacrificed thereunto, 
and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee 
up out of the land of Egypt."— Exod. xxxii. 8. Balaam, 
whose besetting sin was covetousness, appears also to have 
fallen into this transgression of actual idolatry. For it is 
said of him that he " taught Balac to cast a stumbling- 
block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacri- 
ficed unto idols." — Revel, ii. 14. Of Judah, it is said, 
" She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, 
and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold ; which thev 
prepared for Baal." — Hos. ii. 8. She did not receive 
her wealth and abundance as the gift of God, acknow- 
ledging his hand in her prosperity ; and she abused and 
perverted the gift to the service of the heathen idol, 
" According to the multitude of his fruit," says the same 
prophet of Israel, " he hath increased the altars ; ac- 
cording to the goodness of his land they have made 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. (9 

goodly images." — Hos. x. 1. " They sacrifice unto 
their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because 
by them their portion is fat 5 and their meat plenteous.'' 
— Habb. i. 16. 

2. Of its effect on the intellectual character and 
condition. 

Covetousness subjects the reasonable and intelligent 
part of man's nature to the sensual and earthly ; thus 
marring God's work, and effacing his image from the 
mind as well as from the heart. No vice more degrades 
and embases humanity. The avaricious man not only 
lives upon the earth, but for the earth : he looks no 
farther, seeks no other end, and has no higher enjoy- 
ment. He is elegantly personified by the poet : 

Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 

From heaven : for even in heaven his looks and thoughts 

Were always downward bent, admiring more 

The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 

Than ought divine or holy else enjoyed 

In vision beatific.* 

The avaricious man has no elevated thoughts or pur- 
suits ; and, even while surveying the earth on which he 
is intent, the wonders of creating power and preserving 
goodness attract not his attention. " He regards not 
the work of the Lord, neither considers the operation 
of his hands." — Is. v. 12. And as to his fellow-men, 

* Par. Lost. 
D 



80 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

he considers them chiefly as agents and instruments of 
his gain. His intellect, and that discourse of reason 
which are bestowed for high attainments and noble ends, 
are employed on the same unworthy objects, and en- 
grossed by them. In short, he loads himself with thick 
clay, and sinks into the mire : " his soul is bowed down 
to the dust ; his belly cleaveth unto the earth." — Ps. 
xliv. 25. 

3. Of its effect on the moral character and 
condition. 

Lastly, The passion of avarice weakens, and by con- 
tinued habit ultimately destroys the moral principle and 
feeling. It is rooted in self-love, and is the most pre- 
vailing and the most variegated form of that passion. 
The scriptural allowance of loving himself as his neigh- 
bour is so far from being the rule of an avaricious man, 
that he loves himself, to the exclusion of his neighbour, 
in everything where pecuniary and worldly interest are 
concerned. And if, occasionally, he performs certain 
acts which have the outward appearance of liberality and 
love to others, and which may be so regarded by man, 
it is in appearance only ; being either such as cost him 
nothing of his w 7 orldly goods, or such as are performed 
with a view to gain some greater advantage, indirectly 
and ultimately, of the same kind. The covetous man 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 81 

is necessarily selfish. His object is his direct and per- 
sonal advantage ; he " looks" upon " his own things," 
and not " upon the things of others." On the contrary, 
as the temporal prosperity of his neighbour will often 
come in opposition to, or competition with his, he either 
regards it not, or his " heart lusteth to envy." The 
love of money has thus an immediate influence in con- 
tracting the heart and deadening the benevolent sympa- 
thies of our nature. The miser has no friend. 

Non uxor salvum te vult, non films : omnes 
Vicini oderunt, noti, pueri, atque puellse.* 

Nor wife, nor son, thy hated, life would save, 
While all who know thee wish thee in the grave. 

His passion takes away those motives to moral virtue, 
which consist in the exercise of social affections. He 
has not the love of family, or of kindred, but comes into 
collision with them through their natural claims upon his 
bounty. " He that is greedy of gain troubleth his 
own house." — Prov. xv. 27. He " hateth the poor," 
for similar reasons. " He oppresseth the poor to in- 
crease his riches." — Prov. xxii. 16. " Do not rich men 
oppress you, and draw you before the judgment-seats ?" 
— James ii. 6. 

Neither has the avaricious man any regard to the 
good opinion of his fellow-men, even of the virtuous 
and godly ; but shows a deference to those only who 

* Hor. 



S3 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

can promote his worldly advantage, and serve him in 
his traffic and his merchandize. Cupidity, when long 
indulged, destroys, along with other moral feeling, even 
the sense of shame ; nor does the miser regard the re- 
proach of man more than his praise. In short, this 
state of mind is diametrically opposed to every generous 
feeling, which is approved by his fellow-men, as well as 
to the principles and precepts of the Gospel, and, above 
all, to some of the great forms of that charity which is 
" the bond of perfectness," and the chief characteristic 
of Christian temper and disposition. 

But, besides the general habit of mind thus produced 
by the inordinate love of money, there are certain specific 
sins, and violations of the second, as well asof the first table 
of the law, to which this passion, when carried to excess, 
too often leads; namely, extortion and fraud, and the sin 
of injustice, in all its forms. How many persons, who 
would be shocked at the imputation of dishonesty, yet 
allow themselves, from the desire of illegal gain, to vio- 
late the laws of their country in matters of impost and 
taxation, practising thus a direct fraud upon its public re- 
venue ! How many, both individuals, and even whole 
people and nations, and under the sanction, too, of their 
governments and legislatures, have, for the same base 
ends, violated the strongest laws of humanity, and made 
a traffic of their fellow-men, bartering their bodies and 
liberties, and lives, for gold ! Other instances might 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 83 

easily be adduced, where similar wrong and injustice have 
been practised upon a large scale. But the same spirit 
pervades the conduct of the avaricious man even in the 
daily and allowed commerce of society. He who is covet- 
ous in heart may not have recourse to open methods of 
injustice, or the direct infraction of the laws of his 
country, for the accomplishment of his object ; but ex- 
perience shows, that the spirit of covetousness, when 
long prevalent, and become powerful, does naturally 
lead to these violations of the moral law and command- 
ment. And, although the avaricious man may not be 
drawn on to commit the crimes of robbery or theft, 
there are methods nearly allied to these by which he not 
unfrequently pursues the same object, and to which he 
may have been conducted by steps almost unperceived to 
himself. Such unlawful methods are, like the crimes just 
mentioned, either open or covert, and will be resorted to 
by different persons, according to theirdifferentcharacters 
or opportunities. One is an oppressor, and attempts to 
appropriate the goods of others, if not by direct violence, 
yet by means equally unjust, and perhaps equally 
effectual ; by taking advantage of the necessities of an- 
other to extort that which is unjust, or, under the covert 
of law, using even his wealth itself as an instrument of 
avarice. Another attempts the same object by artifice 
and fraud ; secretly exacting upon his neighbour in 
their common dealings, and over-reaching those who 



84 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

are less shrewd or less suspicious. If he be a seller, he 
asks more than the worth of his commodity, and more 
than the price which he is ready to accept. If a pur- 
chaser, he offers less than the worth, and less than he is 
prepared to pay. " It is naught, it is naught, saith the 
buyer; but when he is gone his way he boasteth." — 
Prov. xx. 14. 

Observe, in some of the declarations of God's word, the 
connection there traced between the sin of covetousness 
and those great transgressions against the moral law, 
which have been adverted to. " The instruments of 
the churl are evil : he deviseth wicked devices to destroy 
the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh 
right." — Is. xxxii. 7. " Thine eyes and thine heart are 
not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent 
blood, and for oppression and for violence, to do it." — 
Jerem, xxii. 17. " In thee have they taken gifts to shed 
blood : thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast 
greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast 
forgotten me, saith the Lord." — Ezek. xxii. 1 2. " Thou 
hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought ; and 
stripped the naked of their clothing." — Job xxii. 6. 
" The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again." — 
Psal. xxxvii. 21. " He is a merchant; the balances 
of deceit are in his hand." — Hos. xii. 7. " They take 
a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate."— 
Amos v. 12. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 85 

For those who are, from their station, more peculiarly 
exposed to the danger of this sin by their opportunities of 
oppression, or of influence, we find particular warnings 
given. In Jethro's counsel to Moses, he charges him to 
" provide out of all the people able men, such as fear 
God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and, to place 
such over them." — Ex. xviii. 21. In the apostle's 
charge to Timothy, he makes it, in like manner, a special 
condition in the choice of bishops and deacons, that they 
shall be persons " not greedy of filthy lucre — not covet- 
ous. 5 ' — 1 Tim. iii. 3-8. It is enjoined upon judges that 
they shall not be respecters of persons, either of the 
rich, or of the poor ; a picture and emblem of perfect 
justice. But how is it with the covetous man ? When 
he is placed in the situation of a magistrate or judge, 
he has a respect of persons, and is inclined to weigh 
and value the advantage to himself ; nay, he will per- 
vert judgment, and take a reward even against his 
neighbour ; against him, that is, who is right in his 
cause ; yea, " for a piece of bread that man will trans- 
gress." — Prov. xxviii. 21. See the history of Ahab, 
king of Israel, who, in the midst of his greatness and 
royal wealth, yet coveted the small possession of Na- 
both, and obtained it by the most unjustifiable means ; 
and see the curse which, on account of that, among his 
other iniquities, fell upon him and his house. And in 
the example of Naboth himself, the victim of that 



86 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

oppression, we see also the consequence of too great 
attachment to worldly possessions, and too great tenacity 
of them even when lawfully held, and which in his case 
brought upon him so great evil, and subjected him to 
the wrath of his powerful and unprincipled neighbour. 
The covetous man, who is in a situation of trust and 
power, will calculate even the smallest advantage which 
may accrue to himself from the administration of his 
office. If he is placed as an overseer of the flock of 
Christ, he feeds himself, eating the fat, and clothing 
himself with the wool, but he feeds not the flock, but 
with force and with cruelty he rules them. — Ezek. 
xxxiv. 1-4. In the time of their want and danger he leaves 
them, and " fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth 
not for the sheep."— John x. 12-13. 

When such a picture may be drawn of this passion, 
which eats thus as a canker into the heart of man, well 
may we say with the Psalmist, " Deliver my soul — from 
men of the world, which have their portion in this life, 
and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure. 5 ' — 
Ps. xvii. 13, 14. " Whose god is their belly," says th e 
apostle, " whose glory is in their shame, who mind 
earthly things." — Phil. iii. 19. In short, as far as earth 
is distant from heaven, so far are the thoughts and ways 
of the avaricious man distant from God, and grace, and 
glory. 

The declarations of Scripture as to the dangerous na- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 87 

ture and heinous evil of covetousness, which have been 
amply quoted in the foregoing passages, are no less 
amply verified in the history of individuals and nations 
at all times. 

Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, 
Auri sacra fames ? 

To what will not the cursed lust of gold 
Impel the human breast ? 

— Sed quae reverentia legum, 

Quis metus, aut pudor, est unquam, properantis ayari? 
What reverence for the law, what fear, what shame 
Was ever his who hasted to be rich ? 

Vendidit hie auro patriam, dominumque potentem 
Imposuit ; fixit leges pretio, atque refixit.* 
This wretch his country to a tyrant sold, 
Bartering a nation's liberty for gold : 
Laws for a bribe he passed, but passed in vain, 
For the same laws a bribe repealed again. 

The same poet, in his imagined place of punishment 
and woe, assigns to the - avaricious man and miser the 
lowest region of Tartarus, along with the traitor and 
the parricide, and the fraudulent man, and the adul- 
terer: and the first are described as constituting the 
greater portion of the unhappy number. 

Hicquibusinvisifratres dum vita manebat, 
Pulsatusve parens, et fraus immixta clienti ; 
Aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis, 

* Virg, 
d 2 



88 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

Nec partem posuere suis, quae maxima turba est ; 
Quique ob adulterium coesi, quique arma secuti 
Impia, &c. 

They who on earth had base pursuits in view, 

Their brethren hated, or their parents slew ; 

And still more numerous they who swelled their store, 

But ne'er relieved their kindred or the poor, 

Or in a cause unrighteous fought and bled, 

Or perished in the full adulterous bed, &c. 

When we see the deadly nature of this sin, and the 
many other offences and crimes with which it is closely 
allied, or to which it so often leads, even as attested by 
the natural consciences of men, and viewed by the mind 
of the uninspired moralist, we need not wonder that in 
the sight of God, and as revealed in his word, it should 
be classed among the greatest transgressions which can 
be committed against his holy law ; and calling down, 
if unrepented and unforsaken, the indignation and ven- 
geance of the Most High. It remains then, very briefly, 
to show what is the sentence of God against this sin, as 
revealed in Scripture. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 89 



SECTION III. 

THE JUDGMENT OF CxOD AGAINST COVETOUSNESS. 

This part of the subject, also, has of necessity been anti- 
cipated to a great extent in the preceding remarks, and 
in those passages of Scripture which are descriptive 
of the sin itself. But reference may properly be made 
to some more special and marked declarations which 
pronounce the judgment of God upon those who are 
chargeable with the guilt of it. 

1. The riches of the covetous man are unaccom- 
panied with God's blessing during his possession of 
them ; and are most frequently followed by a blight. 
His mind is troubled and depressed with anxious cares ; 
for he undertakes to bear altogether for himself, that 
burthen which the Lord has offerd to sustain for him, 
and he is therefore disquieted in vain. " Their silver 
and their gold shall not satisfy their souls — neither fill 
their bowels ; because it is the stumbling-block of their 
iniquity." — Ezek. vii. 19. Of him who "keeps his 
riches to his hurt," it is said, " All his days also he 



90 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath 
with his sickness." — -Eccles. v. 17. " His heart taketh 
not rest in the night." — -Eccles. ii. 23. " To the sinner 
God giveth travail, to gather, and to heap up, that he 
may give to him that is good before God."- — Ver. 26. 
" The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be 
gathered : he, (the just,) openeth his eyes, and he is 
not." — Job xxvii. 19. 

2. Not only is the covetous man thus disappointed of 
that happiness, and those enjoyments of which he is in 
pursuit, so that he is not blessed in his wealth, but he 
brings down upon him the wrath and curse of God ; 
and this, whether his riches have been the fruit of in- 
justice and wrong, or procured without such injurious 
means, if they are possessed without the fear of God, 
have engrossed the affections of the heart, or been per- 
verted and misapplied. u He hath swallowed down 
riches, and he shall vomit them up again : God shall 
cast them out of his belly. . . That which he laboured for 
shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down : accord- 
ing to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall 
not rejoice therein. Because he hath oppressed and 
forsaken the poor, &c. ; surely he shall not feel quiet- 
ness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he de- 
sired... In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in 
straits ; every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. 
• ..The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 91 

shall flow away in the day of his wrath." — Job xx. 15-28. 
He that hath gotten riches, and not by right, shall be 
visited in retribution upon himself or his posterity, with 
the reward of his iniquity, and receive in judgment what 
he prepared for others. " This is... the heritage of 
oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. 
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword ; and 
his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread... Though 
he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as 
the clay, he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, 
and the innocent shall divide the silver . . . Terrors take 
hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in 
the night."— Job xxvii. 13-20. 

3. Lastly, when the Holy Spirit enumerates and gives 
as it were a catalogue of those habitual and heinous sins, 
w r hich are strictly opposed to the will and law of 
God, we find covetousness placed in the number, and 
ranked among those which are most aggravated, and 
most displeasing to x the Almighty. " Being filled," 
says the apostle Paul, in describing the gross wicked- 
ness of the heathen world, "with all unrighteousness, 
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full 
of envy, murder, debate, deceit," &c. — Rom. i. 29. And 
in the passage formerly quoted, he desires the Colossian 
converts, among other great sins, to mortify " inordi- 
nate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, 
which is idolatry : for which things' sake the wrath of 



92 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

God cometh upon the children of disobedience." — 
Col. iii. 5, 6. The covetous man is expressly excluded 
from the kingdom of Christ and of God. — Ephes. v. 5. 
Christians are commanded to have no intercourse what- 
soever with any professing disciple who is chargeable 
with this sin ; any more than with such as are guilty of 
open and notorious wickedness. " But now I have 
written unto you not to keep company, if any man that 
is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an 
idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; 
with such an one no not to eat." — 1 Cor. v. 11. And 
it isir among those dangerous and ensnaring indulgences 
to which there shall not be allowed even the least ap- 
proach or suspicion of them among the followers of 
Christ. " But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covet- 
ousness, let it not be once named among you, as be- 
cometh saints." — Ephes. v. 3. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 93 



APPLICATION OF THE PRECEDING 
INQUIRY. 

REMARKS ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF RICHES. 

Such is a short view of the nature of covetousness ; 
its sinful character; and the sentence which is pro- 
nounced against it by the divine law ; where it is found 
to be among the number of those transgressions which 
are most displeasing to God, and most opposed to that 
disposition of heart and mind which ought to prevail in 
his children. The inquiry may not improperly be fol- 
lowed by some arguments and suggestions addressed to 
those individual Christians, who, from natural temper 
and inclination, or from station and employment, are in 
danger of incurring the guilt of this sin. And it is the 
more necessary to exercise caution, and to stir up jeal- 
ousy, in regard to this particular sin, for two reasons : — 
First, Because it is of a deceitful and ensnaring nature, 
not easily perceived in its rise and first approaches: and, 
secondly > Because it is one of those which, lying deep in 
the heart, are often concealed from the notice and cen- 



94 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

sure of our fellow-men, till, by long indulgence, they 
have acquired such strength as to break forth in criminal 
acts, or have so tainted and corrupted the character of 
an individual as to point him out to the scorn and hatred 
of society. " Some men's sins are open before-hand, 
going before to judgment," are notorious, that is to say, 
and manifest in the sight of others, " and some they 
follow after,'' — 1 Tim. v. 24 ; remaining secret to the 
day of account, or seen only in the punishment. Hence 
their frequent union with a religious profession before 
men ; which resolves into the guilt of hypocrisy ; 

For neither man nor angel can discern 
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks 
Invisible, except to God alone.* 

Covetousness may continue long bound up intheheartof 
a man, while it makes little appearance to the eye of his 
fellow-creatures, and may even be overlooked in its first 
inroads by the individual himself. And this is more 
likely to happen, on account of the specious guise 
which the vice assumes; wearing, as it often does, the air 
of prudence, and a careful and reasonable forethought 
in the management of affairs ; or taking the higher and 
more imposing aspect of those duties and virtues, or even 
Christian graces, on which it most nearly borders ; such 
as industry in business, care of children and family, 
moderation, temperance, self-denial. 
* Par. Lost. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 95 

Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis et umbra, 

Quum sit triste habitu, vultuque et veste severum. 

Nee dubie, tanquam frugi laudatur avarus, 

Tanquam parcus homo, et rerum tutela suarum 

Certa.* 

For then in virtue's shape they follow vice, 

Since here a true division is so nice 

That the base wretch who hoards up all he can 

Is praised, and called a careful thrifty man. 

From this secret nature of its operation , and from the 
difficulty of drawing a visible line of demarkation be- 
tween that which is lawful or a commanded duty, and 
that which is sinful and forbidden, an avaricious disposi- 
tion is so frequently found in conjunction with a religious 
name. Of this union some remarkable instances are 
found in holy writ. Balaam, the son of Bosor, was a 
prophet, and employed to bear the message of the Most 
High ; yet did he repeatedly desire to evade the com- 
mission which he received, from the base and unworthy 
motive of expected gain ; for " he loved the wages of 
unrighteousness" — and desired " a reward," that is, a 

bribe 2 Pet. ii. 15, Jude 11. He was "hired," 

says the sacred historian, " to curse Israel." — Deut. 
xxiii. 4. And his heart went with the King of Moab so 
to do, although his intention was overruled by the Spirit 
of God, and he was compelled to bless them altogether. 
Hezekiah, king of Judah, " trusted in the Lord God 
of Israel... and did that which was right in the sight 
* Juv. s. 14. 



96 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

of the Lord." — 2 Kings xviii. Yet have we reason, 
from the sacred record, to believe that he was not free 
from this ensnaring sin ; for we find afterwards that 
his heart was lifted up on account of his wealth and 
worldly prosperity, and that he boasted of the multitude 
of his riches. He made an ostentatious display of his 
treasure before the ambassadors of the king of Babylon, 
a worldly and idolatrous potentate. For " Hezekiah 
was glad of them, and showed them the house of his 
precious things, the silver and the gold... and all that 
was found in his treasures." But what was the re- 
sult ? " Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king 
Hezekiah ;" and after inquiring what had passed, and 
being informed by the king, " Then said Isaiah to 
Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of Hosts, behold 
the days come that all that is in thine house, and that 
which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, 
shall be carried to Babylon ; nothing shall be left, saith 
the Lord." — Isa. xxxix. 2, 6. He was punished in his 
posterity and succession, like some other servants of 
the Lord, whose hearts were right with God, but whose 
particular sins were thus visited upon their descendants. 
" Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, good is the word of 
the Lord which thou hast spoken : he said, moreover, 
For there shall be peace and truth in my days." — Ver. 8. 
There is no religious profession more avowed and 
solemn than that which is made by its appointed priests 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 97 

and ministers, the stewards of the mysteries of God, 
Yet we find in the Scripture history how the sin of 
covetousness was found often to prevail, and to prevail 
in the most notorious and flagrant form, among those 
w 7 ho devoted themselves to the sacred office, and in 
whom it has a peculiar and aggravated guilt. How 
frequent are the warnings in the word of God to beware 
of such pollution ! how awful the denunciations by the 
prophets of Israel upon those who w 7 ere contaminated 
by it ! " Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that 
do feed themselves ; ye eat the fat and ye clothe you 
with the wool ; ye kill them that are fed ; but ye feed 
not the flock." — Ezek. xxxiv. 2-3. " Hear this, I pray 
you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the 
house of Israel ; that abhor judgment, and pervert all 
equity... the heads thereof judge for reward, and the 
priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof 
divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord 
and say, Is not the Lord among us ; none evil can come 
upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be 
ploughed as a field." — Mic. hi. 9-12. For these things 
the Lord's " anger was kindled against the shepherds," 
(Zech.,) and he even " cursed their blessings." 
(Malachi.) The sons of Eli were cut off, and he him- 
self and his house chastised for their iniquity and covet- 
ousness, which he restrained not,— 1 Sam. hi. 13, 
&c. 



98 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

The Pharisees, in the time of our Saviour, not only 
made great profession of religion, but in practice ob- 
served the whole letter of the law with the strictest 
punctilio : yet they joined with their profession, and cher- 
ished under the covering of it, an unsanctified state of 
heart ; and among their sins none was more indulged by 
them, and none more severely reprimanded by Christ, 
than the sin of covetousness. " Ye are they which 
justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your 
hearts." — Luke xvi. 15. 

And what is the state of our own nation and its in- 
habitants, as respects this passion of covetousness and 
the love of money ? Perhaps there is no country of the 
world where it prevails to a greater extent, and is more 
widely diffused among all classes, and mixed up with 
their transactions, both public and private, than the 
professedly Christian and reformed country of Great 
Britain. To trace its influence through all the veins in 
which it circulates would be a fruitless attempt ; but the 
greedy pursuit of gain, and the paramount importance 
attached to its acquisition, are seen on the slightest sur- 
vey, and operating alike in the mass of individuals, in 
public and corporate bodies, and in the legislature itself. 

With regard to the latter, how large a portion of the 
time and care of Parliament is devoted to the subject of 
finance, and revenue, and commerce, and trade, and 
taxation, compared with that which is bestowed on mea- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 99 

sures connected with moral legislation, and the well- 
being of the people at large ; except when, from agri- 
cultural or manufacturing depression and disturbance, 
the latter break forth in acts of outrage or insubordina- 
tion, requiring some temporary expedient for tightening 
the reins of government and strengthening the authority 
of the magistrate. How many large grants are voted 
for public works of every description, including those 
which are merely ornamental, and for the advance- 
ment and facilities of merchandise, or the resources of 
war ; while, at the same time, those which are requisite 
for the general and effective education of the people, 
and other purposes connected with their social relations, 
are dealt out with a reluctant and penurious caution. 
How lately is it that the British legislature has con- 
sented to abandon measures of finance which gave direct 
encouragement to the indulgence of this vice of covet- 
ousness among the subjects, for the purpose of filling 
the public treasury at the expense of private industry, 
as well as morals ; establishing large gambling offices in 
the metropolis, with their subordinate branches spread- 
ing over the whole land. The lottery, with its allure- 
ments, was resorted to, though founded on the same 
principle of fraud which supports the tables of the com- 
mon gaming-house ; and it was, like them too, produc- 
tive of all the evils attendant upon idleness and improvi- 
dence. And the same destroying compromise, which 



100 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

would thus purchase money for the public at the cost of 
public morality, is still seen operating in that more than 
passive encouragement which is given by our revenue 
laws to the profuse manufacture of ardent spirits, with 
all its fatal effects, more wide-spreading than a pesti- 
lence, and more deadly than the instruments of war. 

Of the same nature, but, if possible, still more hateful 
and demoralizing, was the countenance so long given to 
the traffic in humanity carried on by cur colonies. The 
abolition of slavery has, indeed, afforded a pleasing 
example of liberality in the legislature, by a munificent 
grant of compensation to the West Indian slaveholders ; 
an act both of beneficence on the one hand, and of justice 
on the other ; while it marks, in stronger contrast, the 
unchristian policy which preceded. Yet how much of 
the evil still remains which it is out of the reach of 
our legislature to avert ; for the crime continues to be 
not only tolerated, but openly protected and fostered 
by the transatlantic descendants of those who colonized 
from this country ; a legacy bequeathed by Britain to 
her children, over whom, by her own cupidity in another 
form, she forfeited her legislative control. 

Other instances of liberality in our legislature are 
certainly to be met with, besides the compensation grant 
referred to ; and in which large sums have been voted 
from the public treasury in times of dearth, or of com- 
mercial or manufacturing embarrassment, or other sea- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 101 

sons of distress. And these, too, are often just and 
beneficent acts. Yet still they are associated with wants 
and interests of a strictly temporal and physical descrip- 
tion, and bear most commonly on the commercial pros- 
perity of the nation. But, for purposes not immediately 
connected with these interests, it is not the practice of 
our legislature to bestow any liberal or permanent aid, 
having a direct view to the moral improvement of the 
community. 

Again, with the object in view of borrowing more 
easily for their own purposes, we see the legislature 
prohibiting the possessors of this very property, money, 
from using it with that freedom which is allowed in the 
case of all other commodities ; and to such purposes of 
advantage as could be fairly and openly obtained in its 
proper market. This restriction is imposed, indeed, 
under the colour of protecting improvident borrowers 
from those lenders, who would make their necessity the 
occasion of taking undue profit. But, as well known, it 
fails even of attaining this its professed end, and operates 
much more frequently in the other way, compelling the 
improvident person to incur a still greater loss, by insur- 
ing the usurious money dealer against the penalties of 
the law. For, while the prohibition of that law may 
be observed in its letter, it is daily violated in its spirit, 
and is the occasion of much fraudulent and illicit mer- 
chandise. And with respect to that numerous class, 



102 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

who would deal fairly in the commodity, .the law is in- 
jurious and unjust, by tying up their hands from a trans- 
action which, being for the interest equally of the bor- 
rower and the lender, ought, like every other commer- 
cial traffic, to be protected and allowed. But it is im- 
possible to doubt, that, whatever motive may be held 
forth as a pretext, the true reason of this restriction is 
to be found in the fact, that the Government and the 
majority of the legislature are themselves borrowers, 
and have a pecuniary interest in continuing a law which 
gives them a facility for that purpose. And it affords 
an example of the insidious forms, which this monopo- 
lizing propensity can assume. 

Again, in the management of public affairs, for how 
many offices of trust is the mere possession of money, 
to a certain prescribed amount, the sole or chief legal 
qualification ; not excepting the office of the legislator 
himself. We see, too, how even seats in the Legis- 
lative Assembly have themselves been made the sub- 
ject of buying and selling ; and that with scarcely an 
attempt at concealment or disguise. And we see still 
how many enactments are passed, from year to year, 
to restrain the representatives of the people in Parlia- 
ment from corrupting their constituents by gross acts 
of bribery; and passed without effect. Do we not 
often find, in some departments of the public service, 
that while an inferior officer is openly dismissed, and 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 103 

with infamy, for peculation and fraud, the superior, who 
was cognisant of the fact, if not allowed to retain his situa- 
tion, is permitted as if voluntarily to resign it, or, after 
some not severe rebuke, suspended or removed ; thus 
proving that, even in questions of moral conduct, an in- 
fluence is possessed by men of greater opulence or of 
higher station, which is not permitted to those of poorer 
and humbler rank ; whereas the course of justice ought 
to run in the opposite direction, and begin with the more 
powerful offender ; so that he who ought to have been the 
example of honesty in such cases of trust, may be the 
example also of punishment. But legal justice, though 
one of the idols of Britain, is still of limited and un- 
equal authority ; a god of the valleys, but not a god of 
the hills. How many appointments, too, are sold by 
members of some of the national boards, at a fixed price 
in money, as a direct perquisite of office ; and sold with 
the knowledge of these boards, and without censure or 
loss of repute. How many false oaths or declarations 
are taken by individuals receiving or exchanging com- 
missions in the military service, as to the amount of 
money actually paid for such commissions ; and which 
declarations are w 7 ell known to be untrue, but allowed 
to pass in silence, for the pecuniary advantage of those 
who traffic in them. 

Again, in the judicial department, as organized by 
law, we see the parsimony of the legislature, by which 
the expense of supporting the courts of justice is, in 



104 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

a great measure, devolved upon the individuals who are 
obliged to resort to these tribunals for the protection of 
their rights ; in place of being sustained by the nation, 
as a public burthen, for the advantage of the community 
at large. According -to this unjust policy, the suitors 
were formerly compelled even to remunerate the judges 
who administered the law ; a system which, in some 
parts of the empire, partially continued down to the 
present century. And, although not applicable now to 
the case of the judges, the same system is still in force 
as to the subordinate officers of the courts of law 7 ; for 
whose maintenance the private parties are taxed in 
fees upon the various steps of procedure ; and not 
only so, but, in addition to all other and necessary 
charges, are even obliged to contribute, in the form of 
judicial stamp duties, to the public revenue, and the 
purposes of the State. Thus does the covetousness of 
the government and legislature operate as an engine 
of direct oppression and injustice towards individuals. 

To take another instance; in that great judicial depart- 
ment, the prosecution of criminals, we see, in one part of 
the empire, how the penurious principle of saving operates 
on the legislature ; which, instead of providing at the public 
cost for what is by its nature a public office and charge, 
still permits that remnant of barbarous policy to con- 
tinue, which threw upon the private and injured individ- 
ual, suffering in his person or property, the expense and 
grievous inconvenience of vindicating the public law by 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 105 

prosecution of the robber, or housebreaker, or other 
felon ; a system by which not greater injustice is done 
to the individual, than injury and loss sustained by the 
community at large, through the frequent compromise 
of crime, and the ends of justice defeated. 

Farther, in the laws themselves, we see what value is 
attached to money ; and how it is made, or is allowed 
to become, as it were, the measure and standard, even 
where moral principles are in question. Thus, some of 
the most criminal and injurious acts which can affect 
the happiness of families, and disturb the peace of 
society, are, according to British law, not accounted 
crimes against public order and the national morals, but 
only the ground of a civil action for damages, at the 
suit of the private party ; being thus allowed to be 
compensated by the payment of money, without other 
punishment of the wrong-doer ; while many of the sever- 
est penalties of that law are reserved for encroachments 
on the right of property. In some cases, too, even 
that imperfect remedy is, by the nature of the circum- 
stances, debarred. For, among other examples of this 
false but favourite estimate, we see, according to the 
law still existing, and enforced in the largest and 
wealthiest part of the empire, that, in one case of the 
greatest moral injury which can be inflicted on the 
female character, the parent whose child has been 
the victim of artful and deliberate seduction has no 
legal redress against the offender, unless he can prove 



106 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

pecuniary loss and damage sustained by him, through 
the want of that child's personal services in his em- 
ployment ; a redress insufficient in all cases, and in many 
quite excluded and inapplicable ; which, in its purpose 
and intent also, as regards the offender, is a mockery of 
justice, and a punishment altogether inadequate to his 
offence. According to the law of that country, too, 
till altered within these few years by a special statute, 
the offence of stealing the person of an infant child 
could be punished only as theft of the clothes in which 
it was drest ; and if these were not appropriated, the 
wrong was committed with impunity. Farther, under 
the provisions of British law, carried every day into 
effect, we see in how many cases u offence's gilded 
hand can shove by justice ; M not through the " cor- 
rupted currents" of a bribe to the magistrate or judge, 
but through the error and false estimate of the law 
itself, awarding mere pecuniary mulcts for crime ; 
an example of that unequal measure which consists 
in fixing an equal amount for every offender, with- 
out distinction of opulence or rank; thus granting, 
indirectly but necessarily, an immunity to the rich 
man for outrages which will subject the poor man 
to imprisonment, or his family to want. The fine may, 
in some cases, not be too large, as a penalty, even on 
the offender of low degree ; but if so, it must of neces- 
sity be too small as a penalty on the superior. 

In all these and other instances of the same kind, 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 107 

the evil arises plainly from that habitual disposition to 
take money as the general standard of all things; 
whether reward or punishment, whether character or 
qualification, whether private good or public advantage : 
and we thus find covetousness exemplified in what may 
be called the Mammon of the Senate. 

But if this tendency is discovered even in the national 
councils and government, the influence of avarice under 
various forms is still more distinctly marked in public 
bodies of a subordinate character ; in the transactions 
and management of various communities and societies of 
men in the state. We see the cupidity which prevails 
among the great mercantile and banking companies, and 
how eagerly they embark in extended and uncertain 
speculations, the success of which hangs upon a combi- 
nation of unknown and future contingencies; and which 
are commenced, not upon the resources of those who 
conduct them only, but equally, or more so, with the 
funds of thousand others who take no part in that 
management, but who, if the game proves adverse, are 
involved in difficulties, perhaps in ruin. We see the 
schemes formed for the purpose of establishing a mono- 
poly and exclusive trade in particular commodities, and 
the advantage taken of these powerful means to enhance 
prices at the expense of the rest of the community ; 
often, too, in the seasons of calamity and distress. And, 
in various other ways, the covetous man lies in wait to 



108 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

profit by the necessities of his neighbour. This is the 
Mammon of the Counting-house. 

But if such improvident and unsparing haste to be 
rich deserves condemnation in the ordinary transactions 
of civil life, what shall be said of cupidity and avarice 
when reigning in the community of the Christian Church 
itself, and among its office-bearers ? Of all places in 
which covetousness can shew itself, it is most revolting 
and most to be reprobated when appearing in the house 
of God; or the Mammon of the Temple. That the right 
of appointing to offices, of a spiritual nature, in the 
Christian ministry, should be recognised and constituted 
by law as a civil patrimony in any individual who can 
purchase that right with money, and should be exercised 
as a franchise without being subject to any efficient con- 
trol for the benefit and welfare of the Christian flock : 
that it should be a subject of commerce and traffic like 
other merchandize, and even be included among the 
assets of a bankrupt debtor, which may be attached by 
his creditors, would, in a naked statement of the case, 
be considered a monstrous proposition, and inadmissible 
in a land of religious rights and privileges, if the facts 
were not familiar to the mind, and witnessed daily in all 
parts of the empire. Of the same, if not even a worse 
character, is that traffic carried on among those invested 
with the sacred office thus conferred, and which is like- 
wise daily seen in one of the reformed churches estab- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 109 

lished in this United Kingdom. How frequently does 
it happen there, not only that such commerce is per- 
mitted to take place by private agreement, but that 
offers are made, and proposals entertained, through the 
public journals, for the purchase and sale of presenta- 
tions, or the exchange of spiritual offices ; and not infre- 
quently, on the avowed consideration of some temporal 
advantage or convenience merely to the parties ; arrange- 
ments to which the flock is no party, and respecting 
which it is not consulted, but handed over from one 
pastor to another, at the stipulated price. In the same 
manner it is, that those many individuals who occupy 
what are called subordinate situations in the Christian 
ministry of that church, are placed in circumstances so 
embarrassing, and in a state often of needy dependence 
upon the superiors having the power of selection and 
nomination. How 7 much of duty and service is in most 
cases required, and how often even the lowest amount 
of remuneration grudgingly bestowed ; and how much 
tloes the system favour extortion and avarice on the part 
of those in whose service these ministers of Christ are 
employed.* 

* In illustration of these practices, and of the remarks made in 
the text, the following notices, of a recent date, may be referred 
to. They are copied from a religious newspaper of extensive cir- 
culation, and advocating strictly evangelical doctrines : — 

" Curate wanted, where a title for orders can be given. There 
is a small house partly furnished, suitable for a bachelor. The 
population attached to the cure is about 2000, situated in the 



110 ^OVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

Farther, to what other motive but the same unhal- 
lowed love of money, and the purpose of increasing 
their own temporal gain, and filling their children with 
good things, can it possibly be ascribed that so many 

mining district of Shropshire. No one need apply to whom salary 
is an object. Application," &c. 

" Curate wanted early in May to assist a resident invalid, in a 
pleasant healthy village about fifty miles from town, a single man, 
under thirty years of age, in good health, a graduate of Oxford, 
agreeing in doctrine with the author of Apostolical Preaching. A 
priest would be preferred, but to a candidate for orders, really com- 
bining with the required essentials, the qualifications of a scholar 
and a gentleman, a title would not be refused. Address," &c. 

" A clergyman in full orders, accustomed to, and in actual dis- 
charge of an important cure, wishes to hear of an appointment in a 
southern county, or near London. A liberal salary will be re- 
quired." 

" Exchange of livings. Wanted to exchange a living pleasantly 
and most healthily situated in the suburbs of a good town, com- 
bining many advantages, especially to any one having children to 
educate, and of the annual value of rather more than £400, but 
without any habitable parsonage-house ; for one more completely in 
the country, to which there is a good residence attached, or where 
such might be permanently rented, at a convenient distance from 
the church. A sacrifice, in the amount of income, would be made 
by the advertiser for a living agreeably situated, possessing the 
above advantages, and with a population not exceeding 500 or 600, 
Any county south of Warwickshire would be preferred." 

" Wanted to exchange, the immediate presentation of advowson 
of a rectory, situate within four miles of the Severn, between 
Cheltenham and Bristol ; value £600 per annum ; population 1800. 
The rectory-house, on an elevated site, is of a very superior order, 
and suitable for a family of the first respectability ; it comprises 
four sitting-rooms, eight bed-rooms, servants' apartments, suitable 
offices, double coach-house, stabling for four horses, conservatory, 
bath-room, and is surrounded with lawn, pleasure-grounds, and 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. Ill 

pastors in that Church, having the cure of souls, accept. 
and seek the charge of several flocks, two or even more, 
scattered it may be and separated beyond their reach, 
in divers places; leaving one or more, or all of these 
folds in the hands of other men, over whom they them- 

many acres of glebe pasture land. The roads are good, and the 
situation bracing. The patron and. incumbent aged thirty-five, 
desire to exchange the above for a living on or near the sea-coast, 
of similar value, with substantial glebe-house, in thorough repair/' 

" To be sold, an advowson, in the county of Hants, situated 
midway between Andover and Newbury. The rectory is a sub- 
stantial and spacious dwelling. The glebe land consists of about 
sixty acres. The tithes produce a yearly income of £700. The 
present incumbent is in his seventy-sixth year." 

These advertisements are taken, without selection, from one 
number of the London Record, that of 3d April 1837, also taken 
up without selection ; and where they appear in the order above 
given. They afford a painful subject for consideration ; but the 
cases require little comment. We see that where the incumbency 
is in question, the inducements held out or required are a small 
population, a liberal income, peculiar advantages of situation and. 
climate, commodious or elegant dwelling, and other circumstances 
of a temporal nature. Where the laborious assistant is in question, 
the conditions are, numerous requisites for the discharge of the 
clerical duties, with moderate or even with no salary, and with sti- 
pulations in some cases adjected, which are either independent of, 
or contrary to, the Scriptural test. Thus, in the first of the above 
advertisements, a curate is wanted to take charge of 2000 souls, 
but for which none need apply to whom salary is an object. 
And in the second, among the qualifications specified, it is required 
that the applicant should be unmarried, a graduate of one particular 
University, a scholar, and a gentleman ; and it is farther required 
that he shall agree in doctrine, it is not said, with Paul and the 
other apostles and evangelists, but with the writer of a particular 
book, which is prescribed as the standard of his opinions and 
teaching. 

E 2 



1 12 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

selves often exercise no superintendence, or none, it may 
be, but what is injurious. Nor is this evil confined to 
cases where the emolument of one cure might be too 
limited, and prove insufficient for a suitable mainten- 
ance ; though even this circumstance affords no excuse 
for the scheme which produces such anomalies ; but 
takes place, too, in cases where no such reason ope- 
rates. Is not this, in the strictest sense of the term, to 
feed themselves, and not the heritage of which they are 
made the nominal overseers ? And are those who so 
act placing themselves under less than the condemnation 
denounced in the word of God against the unfaithful 
and covetous shepherds of Israel ? Still more, it may 
be asked, are not those who having the power, like Eli, 
by their superior office in the Church to rule their clerical 
household, like him restrain them not, or worse than him, 
do not even reprove, but rather tolerate and abet, 
and themselves pursue the same course, are such not 
subjecting themselves, in the sight of God, to the 
same judgment as that priest, or to a worse than his ? 
And most of all, because with them lies the ultimate 
responsibility, as possessing the ultimate control, shall 
the nation and the legislature, who permit and give their 
continued sanction to such abuse of spiritual offices and 
authority, in any part of the empire, forget the righteous 
judgment of God, declared against rulers, and magis- 
trates, and people, as well as against individuals, for 
such open transgressions of his holy commandment? 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 113 

But the root of all these acknowledged evils is the 
worldly spirit of covetousness, and that prevailing defer- 
ence paid to the rich and the powerful among men. 
This is the great idol of Britain :— 

God of the world and worldlings, 

Great Mammon, greatest god beneath the sky. 

If such are the power and influence of this idol, in 
the community, the legislative councils, and even in a 
great body of the outward church, it is not to be won- 
dered that the same spirit should prevail so extensively 
as it does in the subordinate ranks of society, and among 
individuals. The condition of Britain, as a great com- 
mercial and manufacturing country, holds out peculiar 
temptations to the eager pursuit of wealth and unlimited 
accumulation of property. Nor is this passion for gain 
entirely confined to those who are indifferent to religion, 
and nominal Christians merely, or guided altogether by 
worldly maxims* These maxims are too frequently 
adopted, in so far as cohcerns the acquisition of wealth, 
even by those who belong to, and form part of what is 
called the religious world. This name is inauspicious, 
and the use of it in current speech productive of much 
evil consequence. For it mixes two things which the 
word of God has separated, and declares to be irrecon- 
cileable. Independent of that general sense of the term 
according to which the world comprehends all created 
beings, or the universal frame of God's works, the 
Scriptures acknowledge two worlds in which man has a 



114 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

place and share ; the world of nature, that now is, but 
shall pass away ; and the world of spirit, that shall con- 
tinue and be eternal. And, as regards the race of men 
dwelling upon the earth, though it sometimes includes 
the whole human family, yet when not thus applied, it 
acknowledges the two great distinctions corresponding 
to the former ; namely, of those who mind and seek the 
things of this present world, and of those who mind and 
seek the things of the spiritual and eternal world. But 
man subdivides these differently, and forms out of them 
many more, to suit his own views and feelings. He 
constructs a mercantile, a literary, a scientific, a fashion- 
able, and various other worlds. The ".religious world" 
is one of those human inventions. Nor is the meaning 
of this term well defined, or clearly understood, like 
those last mentioned; but, on the contrary, is ambi- 
guous and vague. For it neither corresponds to that 
part of the community who make a profession of Chris- 
tian faith ; since, with exception of the very few who 
avow, or rather who aver themselves to be infidels, all 
are willing to make an outward profession of that name : 
nor does it embrace all who, there may be good rea- 
son to believe, are inwardly in heart and life among the 
number of sincere Christians ; for it is not applied to 
those, however sincere, who make no public appearance 
or large profession before men, but whose deeds are 
done in secret and unobserved. And, as commonly 
received, it excludes that great class of Christians, the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 115 

poor of this earth, though rich in faith and heirs of a 
kingdom. To form part of the religious world, as the 
words are commonly understood, it is necessary and 
expected that the individuals of it should belong to a 
particular class and rank of society, and should be 
known by certain outward marks as engaged under the 
eyes of their fellow-men, in the promotion of certain 
definite objects and works which considerable numbers 
of professing Christians are for the time occupied in 
promoting. The term is objectionable, therefore, both 
as being unscriptural, and as it is founded upon dis- 
tinctions drawn from external marks alone. 

The outward and ostensible line thus traced, and 
which comprehends in its circle a large portion chiefly 
of the upper and wealthier ranks, as distinguished from 
the rest of the community, is even productive of some 
practical evils not to be overlooked. For, besides 
marking the separation too strongly between the higher 
and the lower ranks in the scale of society, in matters of 
religious concern, an inducement is afforded to the lat- 
ter of making the Christian profession itself a matter of 
traffic, and the assumption of the character and name a 
means of deriving some mere temporal advantage. 
Those advertisements now so frequent in the case of 
domestic servants, as wanted for the household of a re- 
ligious family belonging to some particular community 
or body in the Christian Church, have too strong a 



116 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

tendency to produce this evil. It is not meant, of 
course, that preference should not decidedly be given 
to those possessing the religious character so described ; 
but rather that this inquiry should be conducted by 
other means, instead of that publicity of notice which 
opens the way to deceitful practices, and leads, not 
unfrequently, to disappointment either on one side or 
the other. There is something of display and ostenta- 
tion in this and similar cases, which it is to be feared do 
not tend to the promotion of genuine religion. 

In short, let the individual Christian rather be 
jealous of receiving honour from men, and beware 
of looking to names and distinctions given by man, 
but look rather to his own heart and motives. And 
with respect to the particular sin of covetousness, as 
well as every other, the more openly that he has 
proclaimed himself, or is accounted by others, to be 
of the number of Christ's followers, the more jeal- 
ous ought that inspection to be, and the greater his 
anxiety that, in his ordinary pursuits, and the inter- 
course of life, he acts consistently with his profession. 
For they who attempt to reconcile with their religious 
belief an anxious and eager pursuit either of worldly gain, 
or worldly applause, are in danger of adding to the sin 
of covetousness the hateful and deadly sin of syste- 
matic hypocrisy. The attempt to join the service of 
God with that of mammon, the love of Christ with the 



THE EAR OF SCRIPTURE. 117 

love of the world, necessarily leads to this soul-destroy* 
ing state. It is an attempt to combine things which are 
incompatible and abhorrent; and he who follows the 
one must of necessity forsake the other. Of the Israel- 
ites, it was said by the mouth of the prophet, that under 
the pretext of a desire to hear " what is the word that 
cometh forth from the Lord," — " they come unto thee 
as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my peo- 
ple, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them : 
for with their mouth they show much love, but their 
heart goeth after their covetousness." — Ezek. xxxiii. 
30, 31. When the Son of man appeared upon earth, 
he found the professing worshippers of Jehovah so wholly 
given to the sin of covetousness, that on pretence of serv- 
ing the altar, they carried on their worldly traffic even in 
the holy place; making the house of God " a house of 
merchandize;" and converting it, by their fraudulent 
and usurious dealings, even " into a den of thieves." 

Of their teachers who permitted such things, and who 
themselves practised the same or greater deception, 
Christ says, " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! for ye devour widow's houses, and for a 
pretence make long prayers : therefore ye shall receive 
greater damnation." — Matt, xxiii. 14. To the apostasy 
and treachery of Judas was added this sin of hypocrisy. 
For, even before the perfidy of that mock salutation 
with which he delivered up his Master, he is found 



118 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

objecting to the waste of the ointment with which the 
penitent Mary anointed Jesus ; on the false pretence 
that it might have been sold, and the price given to the 
poor ; " not that he cared for the poor ; but because he 
was a thief, and had the bag ; and bare what was put 
therein." His motive was avarice, and his concern for 
the poor was a cloak of covetousness. — John xii. 4, 
&c. The apostle, foretelling the heresies that should be 
brought into the Christian Church by false and seducing 
teachers, adds, " and through covetousness shall they 
with feigned words make merchandize of you," con- 
verting even the souls of men into a subject of traffic and 
worldly gain, "beguiling unstable souls : an heart they 
have exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children, 
which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, 
following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who 
loved the wages of unrighteousness." — 2 Pet. ii. 3-14. 
If such be the fearful consequences of attempting this 
unhallowed union, how important is it for the professing 
Christian to examine himself, whether he stands in this 
dangerous position. It is by no means necessary to 
suppose that his profession is false or hypocritical. He 
may be a sincere believer in the truths of the gospel, 
and his heart may be right before God, and without 
intentional deceit or guile. For what Christian, in 
common with other men, has not a besetting sin, by 
which he is more easily overcome than by other temp- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 1 19 

tations ? Or, even supposing that covetousness is not 
the disposition to which the individual is naturally prone, 
he may be placed in circumstances which have a pecu- 
liar tendency either to generate that passion, or to with- 
draw the mind from spiritual objects. Worldly pros- 
perity produces this effect at times, even in those who 
are most sincere. Something of apathy and indifference 
to religious duties is apt to grow with growing wealth. 
Such was the case for a time with the patriarch Jacob, 
who, though a decided servant of God, forgot in the day 
of his wealth and temporal ease, to perform his vow 
made at Bethel in the hour of his adversity and fear ; 
and when brought back to Canaan, and reconciled to 
his brother Esau, instead of going at once to erect at 
that place the promised altar, pitched his tent in a city 
of Shechem, and continued with all his family among an 
idolatrous people, till warned by a special message from 
God. He even connived at the possession of images by 
those of his household, and their worship of the strange 
gods of the heathen. — Gen. chaps, xxxii., xxxiii., xxxv. 
Those who are engaged in the active pursuits and 
business of life, above all in a great commercial country, 
where all around them are eagerly bent upon amassing 
wealth, must of course be exposed in a peculiar manner 
to these temptations. Merchandize, like every other 
allowed work and labour of man, is honourable as w r ell 
as necessary, But its attainment must be the fruit of 



120 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

industry and skill; and it must be conducted on the 
principles of justice, and regard to the interest of others, 
in order to be blessed in the results. Yet how often 
and how extensively are these conditions forgot in the 
great trading adventures undertaken in Britain, which 
have already been alluded to, and which are so multi- 
plied in the present day ; of some of which the most 
remarkable features are fictitious capital, unlimited en- 
terprise, and the promise of exuberant gain. Of such 
speculations one of the most frequent issues has been dis- 
appointment, with wide-spread and desolating distress to 
individuals, and families, and large classes of the com- 
munity. It may be said, that these are rather the evils 
of a system, and the consequences of a particular state 
of society ; that they are unavoidable and must occasion- 
ally follow from the condition of trade in a great commer- 
cial country. But this forms no excuse to the conscience 
of individuals, who, while professing higher principles, 
partake in a system producing such effects. False rules 
take shelter in public names and general example ; but 
every individual must be tried by his own act and motive. 
Does he join in schemes which are devised on false and 
unchristian principles; and if so, what inducement prevails 
with him to do so but covetousness, which is not satisfied 
with moderate and lawful profits, the fruit of industry, 
but grasps at those which are sudden and exorbitant ? 
He would not, indeed, justify or defend the passion 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 121 

itself; he would be shocked if any one should speak of 
a covetous Christian, no less than if he should speak 
of a revengeful or malevolent Christian, for it is a con- 
tradiction in terms. But the question is not with respect 
to words and names, but to spirit and principle ; not as 
to the form of godliness, but the power of it. Let him 
try his state therefore by this test; and the rule for 
doing so is to be found, not in human authority and ex- 
ample, but in God's word alone. 

Has he the spirit of Christ, or the spirit of the world ? 
and does he consider the love of money as one of those 
things which mark and distinguish the worldly man ? 
" Love not the world, neither the things of the world ; w 
not merely worldly men, and worldly pleasure ; but 
worldly maxims, and worldly objects of pursuit. " If 
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
in him." They that are truly Christ's have denied the 
world and its ways ; notone only, or some, but all its 
ways. There is no truth of Scripture more prominent 
than this, no contrast and opposition more strongly 
drawn than that between a man of the world and a 
disciple of Christ. It is true that the Christian must 
mingle in the intercourse and transactions of life with 
worldly men, otherwise he must needs go out of the 
world. But he is not to mix with them upon their 
principles and views of conduct. And here his diffi- 
culty lies; for that very intercourse subjects him to 



122 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

strong and ever recurring temptation. Men of the 
world, with whom he must associate, more or less, in 
the business and walks of life, though they look with 
dislike upon his religious profession, will approve of 
him while engaged in the same pursuit with themselves, 
and encourage his aims : they will speak no evil of him 
while he follows after gain : on the contrary, the more 
eager his pursuit, the more will he command their sym- 
pathy. Exposed to the contagion of such example, and 
urged at the same time by the motive and the acknow- 
ledged duty of providing for himself and those of his 
own house, he is often led aside, and entangled with 
those cares and burthens which he is encouraged and 
commanded to cast upon the Lord, who careth for him. 
There is one great department of human life and 
duty, and one numerous class of cases, in which 
Christian parents are frequently misled by the maxims 
of men of this world, and which spring from the root 
of covetousness ; namely, in desiring and countenanc- 
ing those alliances for their children, whether by mar- 
riage or other connexion, which are formed not on 
Christian principle, but on the prospect of wealth and 
temporal advantage. How often does the greater 
amount of fortune which can be secured, become, if 
not the sole inducement, at least the chief considera- 
tion, and preponderate in the scale, without sufficient 
knowledge and inquiry as to the religious character of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 123 

the contracting party. It is a temptation and snare, 
operating in every relation of life, and among all ranks 
of society ; in the case of the apprentice and the ser- 
vant, equally with the noble and powerful of the land. 

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that the 
Christian should in every thing take that standard as the 
rule of his practice, which he has embraced as the rule 
of his faith. In examining the sacred records, he will 
find ample encouragement by example, as well as by pre- 
cept and promise, for the course which he is to follow. 
He will there see how wealth and riches and worldly 
goods have been estimated by the people of God, when 
compared with his service and favour ; and he will see, 
in dismal contrast, the character and fate of those who 
have chosen the things of this life for their portion. 
Let him look to the history of the Old Testament, and 
he will find, in the words of the apostle to the Hebrews, 
Moses the servant of God, " refusing to be called the 
son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." — 
Heb. xi. 24-26. Job, another servant of God, could, 
as we have seen* appeal to Him as the searcher of 
hearts, that he was free from the guilt of this selfish and 
ungodly passion. — Job xxxi. 24. And he could appeal 
to his life and actions, in proof to others of the fact. He 



124 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

was " eyes to the blind," and "feet to the lame," 
" the blessing of him that was ready to perish," " came 
upon him,''' &c. — Job xxix. 13, &c. When David was 
compelled by the persecution of Saul to fly from his 
city and country, we do not find him lamenting the de- 
privation which he suffered of his kingdom and posses- 
sions, but lamenting bitterly his banishment, by this 
constraint, from the house of God and the assembly of 
worshippers. We see also how he prepared, even in 
the time of his distress and comparative poverty, for that 
temple which his son was to build ; making provision of 
materials and treasure, not for himself, but for the house 
of the Lord. " Now, behold," says he to Solomon, 
" in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the 
Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thou- 
sand thousand talents of silver, &c. . . . Arise, therefore, 
and be doing, and the Lord be with thee." — 1 Chron. 
xxii. 14 — 16. He could <say, from the full sincerity of 
his heart, " The law of thy mouth is better unto me than 
thousands of gold and silver." — Ps. cxix. 72. Paul, in 
taking leave of the elders of the church at Ephesus, 
could make this appeal to all of that church : " I have 
coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, 
ye yourselves know, that these hands have minis- 
tered unto my necessities, and to them that were with 
me." — Acts xx, 33, 34. See also his letter to Phile- 
mon, and his generous surety for Onesimus. . Many 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 125 

similar instances might be referred to, if it were ne- 
cessary. 

It has been seen how different were the ways of the 
heathen, and how much God's people were corrupted 
when they mixed with them, and " forgot God their 
Saviour." Before our Lord's appearance upon earth, 
the whole heathen world was sunk in wickedness, " filled 
with all unrighteousness ... and covetousness." — Rom. i. 
29 . And even the Jewish people, though to them w T ere 
committed the oracles of God, wherein w r as contained 
a holy and perfect system of moral law, w 7 ere altogether 
corrupted, and " from the greatest to the least of them," 
given to the same sin. John the Baptist was the fore- 
runner of Him who was suddenly to come to his temple, 
and to sit as a refiner, to purify the sons of Levi, and 
to be a swift witness against the oppressors and those 
who turned away the stranger from his right. John 
came to preach repentance, and the first great lessons 
which he gave, both by the example of his life, and by 
his discourses, were lessons against covetousness, and 
its attendant sins. " The people asked him, saying, what 
shall we do then ? He answereth and saith unto them, 
he that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath 
none ; and he that hath meat, let him do Fikewise. 
Then came also publicans to be baptised, and said unto 
him, Master, what shall we do ? And he said unto 
them, exact no more than that which is appointed you. 



126 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, and 
what shall we do ? And he said unto them, do violence 
to no man ; neither accuse any falsely ; and be content 
with your wages." — Luke iii. 10-14. 

Our blessed Lord, when he began that ministry, of 
which his servant John was the herald, pronounced his 
benediction not upon the rich of this world, or the great 
and powerful, but upon the meek and lowly ; not upon 
those that were full, but upon those that hungered and 
thirsted after righteousness. Knowing the strong bent 
and tendency of the natural mind to this love of the 
present world, of which avarice forms so large a part, 
he uses, in addressing his disciples, the strongest possi- 
ble language of condemnation and warning against it: 
" Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or 
what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye 
shall put on ; ... for after all these things do the Gen- 
tiles seek ; . . . take therefore no thought for the mor- 
row ; for the morrow shall take thought for the things 
of itself." — Matt. vi. 25, &c. And the promises are 
equal to the command: " Sell whatsoever thou hast 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven ; and come, take up the cross, and follow me." 
—Mark x. 2 1 . " Verily I say unto you, there is no man 
that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake 
and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold, 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 127 

now in this time, houses and brethren, . . . with per- 
secutions, and in the world to come eternal life."— 
Ver. 29, 30. 

A worldly and irreligious man may, without incon- 
sistency, pursue the riches and honours of this life as 
the chief object of his desire, and place his happiness 
on the abundance of such treasure. There is at least 
no incongruity between his profession and his practice. 
But it is far otherwise with the professed disciple of 
Christ w r ho pursues such a course. He is attempting to 
unite a worldly mind with the principles of that religion 
which calls upon him to renounce the world ; to receive 
the faith of the Gospel, and yet claim exemption from 
one of its plainest precepts. We have seen the danger of 
such an attempt, as leading to the still more fatal sin of 
hypocrisy, and the fearful condemnation which follows ; 
for to him must that word apply which was spoken by 
the prophet Ezekiel to those elders of Israel, who had 
set up their idols in their heart, and yet came to the 
prophet, and sat before him. " Son of Man, these 
men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the 
stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face : should 
I be inquired of at all by them ? . . . I, the Lord, will an- 
swer him that cometh according to the multitude of his 
idols. ... I will set my face against that man, and will make 
him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the 
midst of my people," &c, — Ezek. xiv. 3-8. We know 



128 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

that thus " the hope of the hypocrite," even his reli- 
gious hope and expectation, " shall perish." " Let 
not that man think that he shall receive any thing of 
the Lord." " If I regard iniquity in my heart," says . 
David, if I cherish any known sin, " the Lord will not 
hear me." Yet does the experience of daily life show 
that there are persons who stand in this perilous state ; 
men who will be very zealous for the truth, who will 
boldly defend and plead for the doctrine of justification 
by faith in Christ, and with equal boldness condemn 
the superstition of the mass, and the mortifications, and 
will-worship of the Popish Church, and yet are them- 
selves apostates in their heart, and idolatrous worship- 
pers of gold. Well may we pray then with the Psalmist, 
" O Lord, incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and 
not unto covetousness." " If any man have not the 
spirit of Christ, he is none of his." — Rom. viii. 9. The 
disciple of Christ looks to temporal things with a refer- 
ence only to things spiritual ; whether he eats or drinks, 
or whatever he does, doing all to God's glory. But 
the spirit of the world is altogether opposed to this 
spirit of the Gospel. The worldly man estimates all 
value by the standard of money, and would make godli- 
ness itself a source of earthly gain. He who thought 
to purchase with gold the gift of the Holy Spirit, and 
its dispensation, acted upon this principle. But what 
was the answer made to him by the apostle; "thy 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 129 

money perish with thee, because thou hast thought 
that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter." — Acts 
viii. 20, 21. 

There are two considerations which will chiefly in- 
fluence the Christian, and two objects which he will 
keep in view, with reference to earthly possessions. In 
the first place, he will estimate them at their true value, 
as altogether subordinate to spiritual things ; and, there- 
fore, the acquisition of them will not be his leading and 
principal concern, far less the exclusive subject of his 
thought and care. And, in the second place, he will 
consider them as a trust, to be used for those ends and 
purposes on account of which they are bestowed. Mo- 
deration in the pursuit, and fidelity in the employment, 
of riches, are the duties, therefore, which he will feel 
to be incumbent upon him. 

1 . On the first of these points, little need be added 
to what has already been adduced. The Christian's 
life depends not upon the abundance of earthly things 
which he possesses. Having used proper diligence for 
the attainment, he can leave the result and issue to the 
providence of God, knowing that, in temporal as well 
as spiritual things, it is he who giveth the increase. 
Dependence upon man is often an evil ; but the spirit 
of constant dependence upon God is always a blessing. 
This close and habitual reference to him, as it is the 



130 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

great privilege, so it is the great safeguard of the 
Christian, and his best security in the time and danger 
of temptation. " The joy of the Lord is his strength." 
It secures him from over anxiety. " Be content with such 
things as ye have : for he hath said, I will never leave 
thee, nor forsake thee." — Heb. xiii. 5. M Trust in the 
Lord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed." — Ps. 
xxxvii. 3. " He hath given meat unto them that fear 
him." — Ps. cxi. 5. Not only is he told, that " to be 
carnally minded is death," — Rom. viii. 6, and exhort- 
ed, " not to be conformed to this world," — Rom. xii. 2 ; 
but the same apostle has said elsewhere, " I would 
have you without carefulness,"— 1 Cor. vii. 32 ; and 
u be careful for nothing ; but in every thing, by prayer 
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests 
be made known unto God." — Phil. iv. 6. To be 
swallowed up either with the toils or pleasures of earth, 
is alike adverse to godliness ; and he that is thus " over- 
charged with the cares of this life," is represented as 
not less unprepared for the second coming of the Lord, 
than he who is overcharged " with surfeiting and 
drunkenness," — Luke xxi. 34, unprepared for that day, 
when ic the kings of the earth, and the great men, and 
the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty 
men," equally with every " bondman, and every free- 
man, shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks 
of the mountains," &c. — Rev. vi. 15. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. l31 

But, farther, the Christian knows that God often 
withholds from his people the abundance of worldly 
riches in love to their souls. " Better is little with the 
fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble 
therewith." — Prov. xv. 16. " The blessing of the 
Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." — ■ 
Prov. x. 22. We are to have regard to that fear 
and to that blessing, then, in our pursuit of temporal 
wealth. Although " in all labour there is profit," and 
although " he that is slothful in his w 7 ork is brother to 
him that is a great waster." — Prov. xviii. 9 ; yet is 
there no promise in the Gospel of a blessing on the in- 
crease and accumulation of riches ; but on the contrary, 
many warnings, as w T e have seen, of the danger to which 
it exposes. Wilt thou then, O Christian, who profess- 
est to follow hard after God, still c; pant also after the 
dust of the earth ? " — Amos ii. 7. Wilt thou who art 
ready to leave father and mother, and brothers and sis- 
ters for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, yet refuse 
to leave thy lands, and thy houses, and thy merchandise, 
that thou mayest follow him more entirely ? Be sure 
that they who are much in the w r orld, and engaged in 
its pursuits, will love the world, for the treasure and the 
heart will ever be found together, and, " if any man love 
the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 

And this suggests an important criterion and test for 
ascertaining whether the Christian is pursuing his 



132 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

worldly objects, and among others, the attainment of 
worldly wealth, in allowed measure, and subordinate to 
the will of Christ, or, on the contrary, above measure, 
and in opposition to that will. Is his love to the Savi- 
our waxing cold ? and, while his treasure is increasing, 
and his silver and gold is multiplied, and all that he hath 
is multiplied, does he feel that he is not so rich as he 
formerly was towards God, that he does not delight 
himself as he once did in the Almighty ? If so, he 
may be certain that he has verily transgressed in this 
matter ; and that, even if he shall have his desire, and 
prosper in the world, God will, in just retribution, send 
yet greater leanness into his soul. 

A divided heart and mind will not be accepted by the 
Almighty. There are many who boast, perhaps, of 
having ten parts in the king, but will not be entirely 
his ; who like Agrippa, are almost, but not alto- 
gether, persuaded to be Christians; who would "die 
the death of the righteous," but not at the expense of 
a righteous life , who like the wealthy kinsman of Ruth 
will not redeem the inheritance of the people of God, 
lest the purchase " mar their own" present " inherit- 
ance," — Ruth iv. 6, and thus forfeit their place and 
hope in the line of the holy seed. 

2. The other important consideration which the 
Christian is required to keep in view, is the use to be 
made of his worldly possessions, and particularly of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 133 

that abundance of them which the providence of God 
may have bestowed upon him. And, as already ob- 
served, the great and evident principle is that they are 
a trust committed to him, which he is to employ in the 
service, and according to the will of his Master, with a 
view to that account which he must render of his 
stewardship. 

And here it is necessary to observe, that, independent 
altogether of the sin of wilful and known hypocrisy, and 
without reference to such aggravation, a state of selfish 
indifference to the welfare of others is in itself sinful, 
and a bar to acceptance with God. This is evident 
from the many passages of Scripture which have been 
quoted, and from many more which might be adduced 
to the same effect, for " no man liveth to himself;" 
and, " let no man seek his own, but every man 
another's wealth," that is, his good and interest.; — 1 
Cor. x» 24. They, above all, who are deaf to the 
prayer and cry of their fellow-creatures, will, them- 
selves, not be heard in their prayer when they cry to 
God in the time of their calamity. As there are many 
who will claim a part in Christ on the score of their 
zealous profession, and their spiritual gifts, having call- 
ed him Lord, Lord, and even done " many wonderful 
w r orks" in his name, but to whom he will answer, " I 
never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity." 
— Mat. vii. 21-23 : so are there many on whom. 



134 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

though not within that class of workers of iniquity, it is 
declared that he will still pronounce the same awful 
sentence, on account of their unfruitfulness and unfaith- 
ful stewardship ; " depart from me ye cursed into ever- 
lasting fire," &c. . . . Mat. xxv. 4 1 , inasmuch as they were 
wanting in their duties of mercy and compassion to man, 
they were wanting in their duty to Christ, 

The will of God, and consequent rule of duty, on 
this as on other subjects, is to be found in his word. 
The sum of the law, as it is delivered by our Saviour, 
is, " Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord : 
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. 
And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself." — Mark xii. 29, 31. And the 
moral law, as given by Christ, is the same; for he 
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. The love 
of God is the root and foundation of all holy obedience ; 
and especially when that love is contemplated in its new 
and greatest manifestation, the gift of his Son for the 
redemption of sinners. 

The Christian acknowledges all which he possesses 
as the immediate gift of God ; not only his life and 
breath, the powers of his body, and the faculties of his 
mind, but his earthly goods, and every thing which he 
enjoys. Holding them by this tenure, his attention, in 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 135 

respect to the latter as well as the former gifts, will be 
steadily directed to the condition on which they are re- 
ceived, which is to glorify God. And as he is placed 
in the world, and furnished with these endowments for 
that purpose, so he is assured and knows that his whole 
life upon earth is a state of probation for the life that is 
to follow, and for the account which he is to give. His 
worldly possessions may form a considerable portion ol 
the talents committed to him for this purpose. Now, 
though the Christian cannot profit God, as a man is pro- 
fitable to his brother, there are two wavs chiefly by 
which he can shew his love to God in the use of his 
earthly goods ; namely, by employing them as an in- 
strument to advance his cause in the world, and as a 
means of promoting the welfare and happiness of his 
fellow-creatures. We have seen with what mind and 
spirit the first Christian converts were animated in the 
use of their temporal possessions, how they united their 
service of God with love to the brethren. And while 
actuated by this sentiment, and fulfilling these duties, 
they both advanced the kingdom of Christ upon 
the earth, and had the greatest enjoyment of their 
goods, " eating their meat with gladness and singleness 
of heart ; praising God, and having favour with all the 
people. And the Lord added to the Church daily 
such as should be saved. 5 '— Acts. ii. 46, 47. " And 

great grace was upon them all."— Acts. iv. 33, It is 

f2 



136 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

now, as much as then, the obligation, and will be the 
ready service of every Christian who is " rich in this 
world," to be " rich in good works, ready to distribute, 
willing to communicate, laying up in store for them- 
selves a good foundation against the time to come." — 
1 Tim. vi. 18, 19. 

There are, as we have seen, two ways also in which 
worldly wealth may be abused or perverted ; namely, 
by employing it on improper and hurtful objects, or al- 
lowing it to lie waste and be unprofitable. With re- 
spect to the former, it is seldom that a professed 
follower of Christ will be found wasting his substance 
in riotous living. The sensualist and voluptuary are 
commonly professed enemies of the cross of Christ. 
And there are few, if any, who will carry their hypo- 
crisy so far, or act a part so inconsistent, as even with 
their lips to name His name, while, at the sametime, 
they are living openly a life of worldly pleasure and in- 
temperance. It has at times, indeed, beerr argued in 
extenuation, if not as a direct defence of a certain in- 
dulgence in the luxuries and pleasures of a worldly life, 
that such expenditure turns to the profit and advantage 
of others, by affording employment to the various classes 
in a community which minister by their skill and labour 
to the luxurious indulgences of the rich. But it is a 
vain excuse, and is the plea of the worldly man. For 
that which ministers to the gratification of those inordi- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 137 

nate desires, described in Scripture as " the lust of the 
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," 
is, in that word, plainly condemned and forbidden. 
— 1 John ii. 16. These are " not of the Father, 5 ' 
but " of the world." The invention and increase ol 
such refined productions are not necessarily connected 
with the exercise of useful industry ; and the promo- 
tion of th£m is not the motive which actuates those 
who give employment of this nature to the mechanic 
and the artisan. For, in the estimate of character and 
disposition, it is the motive which, in every case, forms 
the true criterion of conduct. 

But though the Christian will abhor such inordinate 
gratification of sense, and fly from the haunts of luxury 
and ostentation, there are other and more ensnaring ties 
by which the world can attract and fix him. While 
flying from its sinful pleasures, and hating its intemper- 
ate waste, he is in danger of a different extreme, and 
giving the name of virtue to that which is only the 
opposite of another vice. The process is easy, and per- 
haps unperceived; the duty of sparing is converted 
gradually into the desire of hoarding ; and the hater of 
extravagance becomes insensibly a lover of money. This 
is not an imaginary danger, but unhappily is too often 
verified in human life : and to guard against it, let the 
following motives and considerations be present to the 
mind of every follower of Christ who is in danger of 



138 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

contracting the guilt of this sin, or feels the first rising 
of it in his breast. 

Let him look into the law of God, which he knows 
and believes to be in all things just and right, as well as 
holy. There it is written, " Cast thy bread upon the 
waters : for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a 
portion to seven, and also to eight ; for thou knowest 
not what evil shall be upon the earth." — Eccles. xi. 1, 2, 
— that is, give liberally, and also now, in due season, 
ere it be too late. " Blessed is he that considereth the 
poor." — Ps. xli. 1. Among the causes of God's anger, 
how often do we find that sin stated, of riches kept by 
the owners to their hurt, who shall eat in darkness, and 
have much sorrow and wrath in their sickness ; whereas 
of the liberal it is said, in striking and appropriate con- 
trast, " The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of 
languishing; thou wilt make," or literally turn, " all his 
bed in his sickness." — Ps. xli. 3. " Thou hast not 
given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast with- 
holden bread from the hungry, . . . thou hast sent widows 
away empty." — Job. xxii. 6-9. " Neither," it is said 
of Sodom, " did she strengthen the hand of the poor 
and needy." — Ezek. xvi. 49. And among the promises 
of God, how many are to the liberal and open-handed ! 
" If he hath given his bread to the hungry, and covered 
the naked with a garment, ... he shall surely live." — 
Ezek. xviiu 16. " The righteous giveth and spareth 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. L39 

not." — Prov. xxi. 26. " He hath dispersed, he hath 
given to the poor ; his horn shall be exalted with 
honour." — Ps. exii. 9. " He that hath pity upon the 
poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath 
given, will he pay him again." — Prov. xix. 17. With 
many others to the same effect. 

Let him look into the mirror of the Gospel, that 
perfect law of liberty ; of liberty from sin and the yoke 
of bondage ; and especially, to that new commandment 
bequeathed in the testament of his Redeemer, that uni- 
versal love and charity, which is the fruit and evidence 
of faith, and the bond of perfectness ; that greatest and 
abiding grace, begun on earth and consummated in 
heaven. What is the call of the Saviour to all his fol- 
lowers? what are his precepts, his warnings, and his 
promises? " Give to him that asketh thee, and from 
him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." — 
Matt. v. 42. " If ye do good to them which do good 
to you, what thank have ye ? for sinners also do even 
the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to 
receive^ what thank have ye ? for sinners also lend to 
sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your 
enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing 
again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be 
the children of the Highest : for he is kind unto the 
unthankful and to the evil."— Luke vi. 33-35. " Give, 
and it shall be given unto you . . . for with the same 



140 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to 
you again." — Ver. 38. " Unto whomsoever much is 
given, of him shall be much required," — Luke xii. 48. 
" When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne 
of his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all na- 
tions ; and he shall separate them one from another, as 
a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he 
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on 
the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his 
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world : For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, 
and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was 
sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me, &c... Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me." And to those upon the left 
shall he in like manner answer and say, " Inasmuch as 
ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not 
to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment : but the righteous into life eternal." — Matt. xxv. 
31, &c. " Whoso," says John, " hath this world's good 
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his 
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love 
of God in him?" — 1 John iii. 17. " He that loveth 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 141 

not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love 
God whom he hath not seen ?" — 1 John iv. 20. " As 
we have therefore opportunity," says another apostle, 
" let us do good unto all men, especially unto them 
who are of the household of faith." — Gal. vi. 10. " To 
do good and to communicate forget not : for with such 
sacrifices God is w T ell pleased." — Heb. xiii. 16. " Dis- 
tributing to the necessity of saints ; given to hospitality." 
..." If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink." — Rom. xii. 13-20. 

Let him look to Jesus, the perfect pattern of life to 
his people, as well as the author of their faith ; who, 
" though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became 
poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich ; " 
—2 Cor. viii. 9 ; who, when he was to be born into 
this world, chose not the rich and the great in it, 
but the family of a humble mechanic, and shared in 
their daily toil. Although he " made his grave with 
the rich," he dwelt with the poor ; both fulfilling all 
prophecy thereby, and shewing that he could use the 
wealth of this world, as well as its poverty, at his own 
time, and in his own way, for his honour and glory. 
The earth was his, and the fulness thereof; but he ap- 
propriated not its possessions, neither used his power 
over it except for the dispensation of benefit to others ; 
that he might be an example to all them that believe in 
his^ name 6 Look to his chosen disciples, who forsook 



142 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

their worldly goods, and left all to follow him. Look 
to his apostles and servants, who worked with their own 
hands, when they might have been chargeable to those 
among whom they spiritually laboured ; who " both 
hungered and thirsted, and were naked, and had no 
certain dwelling-place ; " — 1 Cor. iv. 11,..." were in 
labours, in watchings, in fastings; "...who were "as poor, 
yet making many rich ; as having nothing, yet possess- 
ing all things ;" — 2 Cor. vi. 5-10; that they might min- 
ister to their brethren in Christ ; for they " sought not 
theirs, but them." And look to their followers among 
the early Christians, who " took joyfully the spoiling of 
their goods, knowing that they had in heaven a better 
and an enduring substance." — Heb. x. 34. The Chris- 
tians of the churches in Macedonia were liberal and 
willing " to their power," says Paul, "yea, and beyond 
their power, praying us with much entreaty that we 
would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship 
of the ministering to the saints." 

Such are the precepts, encouragements, and warn- 
ings which the w T ord of God furnishes, and such the 
examples which through its power are set before us, 
with respect not only to the proper estimate, but also to 
the proper use of worldly possessions. How, then, 
shall the believer in that word, to whom have been 
freely given " the unsearchable riches of Christ," allow 
himself to be a penurious and niggardly dispenser of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 143 

that temporal wealth which has been added unto him ? 
It is the Christian's privilege, and part of his high call- 
ing to be a " worker together with God." And the 
faith which he professes is not a dead but a living faith ; 
a faith " which worketh by love," and " overcometh the 
world." Prayer and praise, and giving of thanks are a 
large part, but not the only part of his duty and delight. 
Outward ordinances are the channels of grace ; but 
these channels may be dry : and as it is from " the 
fulness of the heart" that " the mouth must speak," 
when it " makes confession unto salvation ; " so it 
is in working the works of God that the heart will 
be enriched with more grace, and the believer will be 
" blessed in his deed." Christ delighted to do as well 
as to suffer the will of God, and so his followers must. 
The Gospel message, as announced by its heralds, was 
" Glory to God in the highest, and good will to men." 
They who fasted often, and made many prayers, in 
token of repentance, but without active benevolence, 
were not thus blessed. Hear what the Lord says of 
" the transgression of his people, and the sin of Jacob." 
— " They seek me daily, and delight to know T my ways, 
as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the 
ordinances of their God. .,. They take delight in ap- 
proaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say 
they, and thou seest not?... have we afflicted our soul, 
and thou takest no knowledge ? Behold, in the day of 



144 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

your fast, ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. 
Behold, ye fast for strife, and debate, and to smite with 
the fist of wickedness. ...Is it such a fast that I have 
chosen ?..* Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and 
to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? Wilt thou 
call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is 
not this the fast that I have chosen... to deal thy bread 
to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are 
cast out to thy house ? when thou seest the naked, that 
thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from 
thine own flesh ?" — Is. lviii. 2-7. " If a brother or 
sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of 
you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and 
filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not those things 
which are needful to the body, what doth it profit ?" — 
James ii. 15, 16. " Grudge not one against another, 
brethren, lest ye be condemned."— James v. 9. In 
short, the want of active and liberal benevolence, or the 
fruits of Christian love, is condemned by the law of 
God, not less than positive wrong and injustice ; and 
this is constantly enjoined, that they who believe " be 
careful to maintain good works;" to perform those 
active services which are " good and profitable unto 
men." 

It is to be remembered, too, that such deeds and gifts 
of Christian charity redound in many ways to the praise 
and glory of God. If " by the sorrow of the counte- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 145 

nance the heart is made better, 5 ' so by the rejoicing ot 
the heart, upon deliverance and relief, is it naturally 
opened to the influence of divine grace, to prayer, and 
praise, and thanksgiving. Hence the apostle, while 
acknowledging a supply from the Christians at Corinth, 
thus writes :— " And God is able to make ail grace 
abound toward you ; that ve always- having all suffi- 
ciency in all things, may abound to every good work... 

being enriched in everv thing to all bountifulness, which 

© j © ■* 

causeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the ad- 
ministration of this service not only supplieth the want 
of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings 
unto God... and by their prayer for you, which long 
after you for the exceeding grace of God in you." — 2 
Cor. ix. 8, 14. Thus is Christian liberality twice 
blessed; it is blessed to the giver by increase of his 
spiritual grace and joy ; and it is blessed to the receiver 
as a channel for the communication of the like grace ; 
while, seeing the good works of the children of God, he 
is led to glorify their father who is in heaven. 

It is not unfit to remark farther, that services and 
gifts bestowed from this principle of love to Christ, and 
obedience to his command, may frequently return, and 
in the providence of God often do return, even in tem- 
poral blessings to his servants. " I will repay, 5 ' saith 
the Lord. When Jesus blessed the provision for the 
multitude who followed him, and made distribution ot 



146 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

it with thanksgiving, the fragments which were gathered 
up exceeded the original store. This was, indeed, the 
result of a miracle wrought by his divine power ; but to 
those who observe God's ways the operations of provi- 
dence will be seen still as a perpetual miracle. 

Such are some of the views which the Gospel holds 
forth of the duties and the blessings of that spirit which 
is opposed to the spirit of avarice. And now, if any 
follower of Christ shall recognise, in the passages of 
Scripture which have been quoted, a resemblance to 
himself, shall detect any trait of his own character in the 
picture which they draw, shall discover in his own heart 
that secret love of money which is manifested either by 
much warmth and eagerness in the pursuit of it, or much 
unwillingness and hesitation in parting with it ; let him be 
earnestly besought to acknowledge his danger, and seek 
to be delivered from this bondage. His treasure is in 
heaven, where he hopes to have " an inheritance among 
them that are sanctified : " let him seek to have his heart 
there now. He would secure to himself " the true 
riches ;" let him seek to be first " faithful in the un- 
righteous mammon." He may not be found in the 
assemblies of wicked or of worldly men. He may not 
have defrauded the hireling of his wages, or made the 
oppressed to cry. But we have seen, that the neglect 
of duty is not less displeasing to God than the positive 
violation of it. For " whoso stoppeth his ears at the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 147 

cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be 
heard." — Prov. xxi. 13. " Thou hast not given water 
to the weary," &c. — Job. xxii. 7. M In as much as ye 
did it not to these, ye did it not to me," &c. — Matt. xxv. 
40. " For he shall have judgment without mercy, that 
hath showed no mercy." — James ii. 13. Is he, then, 
giving himself to works of love ? or is he at ease in his 
possessions, an indifferent spectator of what is passing in 
the world around him ? Is he " grieved for the afflic- 
tion of Joseph ? " — Amos vi. 6 ; and if so, is he excited 
not only to sympathy and commiseration, but to deeds 
of active assistance ? 

To enumerate either the modes or the measure of 
Christian beneficence, is plainly impossible. They are 
as varied as the necessities and the interests of man. 
In temporal as well as in spiritual gifts, it is a " mani- 
fold grace," of which the Christian is a steward. Sin 
has introduced much disturbance and misery into hu- 
man society, as well as much guilt and crime. Inequa- 
lity of rank and of wealth, indeed, is not an arbitrary, 
or a fruitless distinction, but a wise and benevolent 
appointment in the providence of God, and one which 
gives scope for the exercise of many virtuous and kind 
affections. It is no part of Christian duty, or aim, to 
confound, or to disturb those outward distinctions and 
relations of life ; but, on the contrary, to maintain them 
as the ordinance and will of God. But it is his duty, 



148 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

and will be his delight, by the exercise of those very 
virtues to which they give occasion, to lessen and alle- 
viate the inconveniences which accompany them, and 
which the evil passions of men have aggravated and 
enhanced. For the worldly man would convert these 
distinctions into an instrument of his own gratification 
and selfish indulgence, and to the oppression of his 
brother man. The Christian, on the other hand, desires 
to correct the inequality, by communicating of his 
abundance, and otherwise to heal and relieve the moral 
diseases which that inequality so often generates. He 
would thus endeavour to prepare the way of the Lord 
in this moral desert ; to make crooked things straight, 
and the rough places plain. It is one of the evils con- 
sequent upon a great advance of civilization and refine- 
ment in society, that the separation between different 
classes and portions of the community becomes more 
and more strongly marked, till it is in danger of widen- 
ing into a breach. The influence acquired from the 
mere possession of worldly wealth, and of that money 
which " answereth to all things," is overrated. The 
rich man claims all the honour, as he has acquired all 
the power ; and the poorer man is condemned or dis- 
regarded. Hence a tendency to disunion of the social 
bonds ; and hence the ties of humanity, even in kindred 
and neighbourhood, are loosened or broken. 

The approach to this state, as regards the different 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 149 

ranks of society, is too manifest in these British king- 
doms. For, though distinction of ranks is necessary 
and appointed, it ought to have no place where moral 
principle and religious privilege are concerned. Yet 
do we see the rich men of this Christian country seek- 
ing to be separated and distinct from their less opulent 
brethren, even in the house of God ; and this, too, 
under the appearance sometimes of consulting the ad- 
vantage of the latter. A church for the poor, as con- 
trasted with the rest of the community, though it has, 
in part, been rendered necessary, or is excused in con- 
sequence of the house of God being made a source of 
temporal revenue to individuals or communities, is in 
itself an evil. The rich and the poor ought there to 
meet together, and worship God in common, without 
bringing into prominent view the distinctions of their 
worldly condition. Let the Legislature, or let the 
wealthy out of their ampler means, provide the building 
and endowment of churches, though not refusing the 
poor man's equal mite ; but the service and ministration 
of these churches ought to be common and accessible 
to all. This is another instance of the many forms 
under which a deference is paid to wealth, in cases 
where such consideration ought to have no place. It 
is adverse to the apostolic precept in this particular 
case, as plainly delivered, James ii. ; and it is adverse 
to the whole spirit and tenor of the Gospel, which, 



150 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

agreeable to that precept, forbids " having the faith of 
the Lord Jesus Christ" along with " respect of persons," 
as before God. The disciple of Christ, therefore, will 
not act upon such principles, or encourage such views. 
He is especially called upon to give the tone, so far as 
depends upon him, and take the lead in every part of 
this moral cause, and to afford an example to others. 
He is set upon a hill, and his conduct for good or bad 
cannot be concealed. He is the salt of the earth, and if 
the salt has lost its savour, wherewith shall the earth be 
salted ? 

With respect to the use of riches, he who studies 
the word of God, and adopts its principle and spirit, 
will be at no loss to discover the methods and occa- 
sions for exercising his liberality; and every indivi- 
dual must judge for himself, as before God, and 
having a good conscience, how he shall bestow of his 
abundance ; to what extent, and under what limita- 
tions. Christianity is not circumscribed but enlarged 
in its views, and adapts itself to all circumstances and 
situations. Let the Scripture be every man's standard 
and guide. Whatever contributes to better the moral, 
the intellectual, and the physical condition of the human 
race, lies within the range of his choice; including 
under the first of these, that which is of all the most 
prominent and the most important, namely, provision 
for the souls of men, through the instrumentality of the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 151 

teachers of religion and the instructors of youth. The 
souls of men were the great objects of the Saviour's care, 
yet he did not forget their temporal necessities ; he had 
compassion on the multitudes, and would not send them 
empty away ; and the most frequent miracles which he 
wrought were for the direct relief of their corporeal 
wants or distresses. The field of the Christian, in like 
manner, though not in the samfe way, embraces both, 
and is extensive and diversified as the gifts and dispen- 
sations of God, whom he desires to serve. It compre- 
hends all things which pertain to life as w 7 ell as godliness 
—the health and comfort of the bodv, the culture of 
the earth, the advancement of useful arts and know- 
ledge, in their due order and subordination ; and extends 
from self to the eircles of family, of community, of 
nations, and of mankind. We are not " straitened in 
God," if we are not " straitened in our own bowels." 
Some withhold their hand, lest in ignorance they should 
bestow improperly. But the remedy is pointed out by the 
patriarch; " the cause w 7 hich I knew not I searched out/' 
It is not ignorance of fit objects for his beneficence, but 
unwillingness to discover them, which makes the covet- 
ous man thus jealous and fearful of giving amiss. 

Again, in one large department of cases, to which, 
by an erroneous and ignorant interpretation, the grace 
of charity has, in common speech, been often restricted, 
namely, ministering to the necessities of the poor and 



152 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

indigent, there are some persons who make it an excuse 
to others, and it may be to themselves, for their unwil- 
lingness to contribute, that such assistance too frequently 
acts as a discouragement to industry, and even as an 
inducement to those vices of which idleness is the na- 
tural parent. And, although this is not the proper place 
for discussing such a question, it is undeniable that too 
much is done by many Christians in this way, under a 
mistaken apprehension of the Gospel precept. For, 
where there is not an exercise of prudence in the ad- 
ministration, both as to the object and the amount of 
such gifts, there can be no doubt that much evil is often 
the result. But the true distinction to be made lies in 
the mode of the relief, not in the obligation to relieve ; 
in selecting the proper objects of the bounty, not in 
refusing it to all. Indiscriminate alms-giving is not 
charity. Much gold and silver may be given, both by 
individuals and communities, and many great and ex- 
pensive establishments may be founded, without a cor- 
responding benefit, and even with positive injury both 
to society at large, and to the very objects of such 
bounty. Witness the incalculable extent of evil, both 
physical and moral, occasioned by the maladministration 
of a poor law in this nation, and the lavish distribution 
of public funds thereby diverted into improper channels. 
And with respect to the donors themselves, such acts 
may be performed from motives ill according with the 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 153 

principles of Christian beneficence. But who will, for 
this reason, call in question, that gifts and institutions 
for the relief of those afflicted with helpless poverty and 
sickness, and the many natural ills which flesh is now 
heir to, are, when rightly ordered, a fulfilment of the 
law of charity ; and that fit objects will never be want- 
ing, or cease out of the land, both for private and more 
public bounty, to claim the help of the real philanthrop- 
ist. It has been said, both of poverty and of fraud, 
that they are ingenious things. But it is equally true 
of every affection and desire. All are skilful, as well 
as diligent, in the pursuit of that which engages the 
heart ; and he with whom benevolence should be a pre- 
vailing passion would be ingenious also, if exertion was 
necessary, in discovering objects by which it may be 
gratified. 

Without presuming to enter into any enumeration of 
these, where can the Christian look round without find- 
ing numberless claims upon that active charity, without 
which faith and every other gift and grace are u no- 
thing ; " without which, though you could speak with 
the tongue of " angels " as w T ell as of men, you will be 
as " sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 5 ' Is there no 
relative, or friend, or dependent, whom, on account of 
his scanty means, you will remember with some bequest 
on your death-bed, but to w T hom the present aid would 
be of equal or of much greater importance ? Is there 



154 COVETOtfSNESS BROUGHT TO 

no acquaintance overtaken by sudden disaster and cast 
down, whom you could help to restore ? No industrious 
artisan or mechanic at your door, who may be unable 
to provide the material or the implements of his labour ? 
No youth of mental promise, who cannot furnish for 
himself the means of a liberal or professional education ? 
No imprisoned debtor suffering through unforeseen 
adversity, whom you could without difficulty enlarge ? 
If your natural bent and early habits lead you to the 
culture of useful learning, and the exposition of the 
wonderful works of God in the creation, are there not 
schools of art and science, the objects of which you can 
promote, and plans of discovery which you can assist in 
advancing? Above all, are there not thousands, and 
hundreds of thousands, of your fellow-creatures living 
in spiritual darkness, to whose shores and mansions the 
word of God and his message of grace might, with 
your assistance, be sent, so that every man might hear, 
" in his own tongue, the wonderful works of God?" 
Are there none of our countrymen, in distant colonies, 
who find themselves in a state of spiritual destitution, as 
sheep without a shepherd 5 whom you might be a help 
in gathering ? No faithful ministers of Christ engaged 
in solitary labour at home, or voluntary and more de- 
serted exile abroad, in the cause of the Gospel, whose 
hearts and hands might be encouraged and strengthened 
by your means in their great work ? 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 155 

New fields are constantly opening to view, and en- 
larging'. And here it mav be observed, that the school 
of infants is an era in moral history, and seems to dis- 
cover a better prospect and awaken a better hope? 
giving promise of that new age and revolution of the 
orb of time, the nova progenies, the ordo sceclorum ah 
integro* which the Roman poet could fancy, and sighed 
for. The vouthful mind, in its tenderest vears, is a 

Xl ' xl ' 

favourable soil in which to plant the germ of religion, 
and especially that law of love which is delivered in the 
Gospel of the grace of God. And how early may not 
that message be made known and its spirit be inculcat- 
ed ! Here, too, is a propitious time for teaching the 
lesson of brotherly love and disinterestedness. It has 
frequently been remarked, that avarice is not the natu- 
ral sin of youth — a remark which seems to be true to 
this extent at least, that it is one of those passions which, 
not being yet developed or cherished, may be more 
easily chastened and counteracted in them than in others. 
The opportunity afforded by these institutions, of train- 
ing the hearts as well as the understandings of a rising 
generation, is an object well deserving the attentive 
consideration of the Christian philanthropist. It is a 
happy juncture, if seized and improved by right manage- 
ment, for sowing the seeds of grace as well as the seeds 
of knowledge, in multitudes of the human race, who 
have hitherto, through a fatal and preposterous error, 



156 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

been considered, at the very season when it is most 
needed and most effectual, as being out of the pale of 
Christian education. Already has there been much 
pleasing experience in this case. And may it not be 
reasonably hoped, that many more and happier and 
increasing results are still preparing ; that, in number- 
less cases, the good seed which is thus made to root 
downward in the softer and newly broken mould, shall 
be watered by the heavenly dew, and spring, and bear 
much fruit upward in a future day ? To the case of such 
labours of love, and those who are engaged in them, 
the words of the Redeemer seem to have a peculiar 
and striking application ; " inasmuch as ye have done it 
to the least of these, ye have done it unto me." The 
Christian precept on this whole subject is not only 
large, but unreserved : " Do good unto all men, but 
especially to such as are of the household of faith." 
Nor does this addition form any limitation of the com- 
mand. It is a new motive and inducement, not a re- 
striction. For, as the family of Jesus are the nearest 
and dearest to him, though without exclusion of the 
others, so will they naturally be to his followers, their 
fellow-servants. 

Let the Christian, then, whatever be his outward 
state and condition, whether subject or ruler, whether 
churchman or layman, not only desire to be thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works, but also remember, that 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 157 

" now is the accepted time " for the works of love, as 
well as for the work of faith. Reference has been 
made to that frequent error into which men, even the 
most sincere, are so apt to fall, of delaying their liber- 
ality to the hour of death, exercising thus a kind of 
forced generosity. This is a remnant of covetousness, 
the dregs and lees of worldly-mindedness, found even 
in the renewed heart, and manifested in a reluctance to 
part prematurely and altogether with the possessions of 
earth. It is a deception practised on the soul, to sug- 
gest that the precept and will of the Saviour are satis- 
fied by leaving a portion, perhaps a large one, of our 
worldly goods, to be employed, after our death, in the 
advancement of his cause, and in works of mercy to be 
done in his name. But the test by which the work of 
compromise may be tried is, that they are not incon- 
sistent with the disposition of the covetous man, or^ven 
of the miser. It is to & serve God for nought," with 
that which costs the giver scarcely any thing of his 
avaricious and selfish passion. When he can no longer 
retain his possessions, he bequeaths them to God. " As 
he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he 
return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his 
labour which he may carry away in his hand." — Eccles. 
v. 15. This is not the sacrifice which God requires of 
him. There may, indeed, and commonly will, be a 
surplus in the hands even of the most liberal man, at 



158 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

his death, which it is his duty to dispose of, as he would 
have disposed of his other wealth during his life. But 
he who reserves all his deeds of charity, or most of 
them, to the day of his departure, acts an inconsistent 
part, His is not a cheerful, but rather a grudging gift. 
How many useful objects may have been disappointed, 
how many afflicted and desolate gone down to the grave 
in sorrow, before the hour of his beneficence has arrived, 
which he was thus throwing on the die of future and 
contingent events, which neither his prescience could 
anticipate, nor his power control ! Such bequests may 
be directed by the providence of God for good. But 
to the donor, it may be feared, they were unprofitable. 
With him it was scarcely a labour of love ; his affec- 
tions were not exercised, his heart was not bettered. 
Against this error, with all its kindred forms of procras- 
tination and delay, too often the refuge of a covetous 
spirit, it is not superfluous to admonish the Christian 
believer with earnestness. Let him not suppose that 
his soul is delivered thus, if now, at the present time, 
he cherishes a selfish and niggardly disposition. " If 
thou sayest, behold we knew it not, doth not he that 
pondereth the heart consider it?" — Prov. xxiv. 12* 
" I know that there is no good in them" — that is worldly 
riches — " but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his 
life." — Eccles. hi. 12. " There is no work, nor device, 
&c. in the grave, whither thou goest." — Eccles. ix. 10. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 159 

" God now accepteth thy works." — Eccles. ix. 7, — 
that is, thy deeds ; and at the present time, not thy 
intentions for the future. For " who shall bring him 
to see what shall be after him." — Eccles. iii. 22. 

You may not have it in your power, from peculiar 
circumstances, such as infirmity of age, sickness, or 
other incapacity, or even from the immediate calls of 
peculiar station and duty, to prosecute those objects of 
active beneficence w 7 hich others can do with effect. 
There are diversities of gifts : and everv-man will be 
tried by that which he hath, not by that which he hath 
not. If you cannot " go about " to do good, you can 
do good by " communicating." Health, and strength, 
and activity, are the talents of one ; the talent of an- 
other is to furnish the means, or part of the means, by 
which that personal exertion may be rendered effectual. 
The willing mind is common and indispensable to both : 
and if that be first found, neither the objects nor the 
instruments of usefulness will be wanting. 

But here it is necessary to interpose two remarks in 
the way of caution, and to prevent misapprehension, 
For there are two principles to be always observed, and 
two mistakes to be avoided by the Christian in his 
works of charity and love ; one regarding the primary 
motive, and the other regarding the ultimate end or 
purpose. 

1. Acts of beneficence toward man, as well as the 
g 2 



160 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

more immediate acts of homage and service toward 
God, must originate from the right principle, and be 
performed with the right disposition* namely, that of 
love and good will. The grace of charity must be 
present as well as the outward expression. It is not 
the doctrine of the Bible to lav the believer under con- 

ml 

straint, and subject him to formal acts of charity, more 
than of devotion. The spirit of Christianity is not a 
spirit of bondage and fear, but of liberty and love y and 
the disciple, in his ministrations of kindness, does not 
act " of constraint, but willingly." God loves a cheer- 
ful giver ; and what is done to him, as every work of 
the believer is done* must be from the heart, not as a 
condition of his acceptance and favour, but as the fruit 
of it to his praise and honour. The homage rendered 
by a Christian, then, in this form and way, must be not 
a servitude, but a free offering. " The letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life."— 2 Cor. iii. 6. And so 
it is in the whole of religious duty and practice ; and 
there is, perhaps^ no dictate in the word of God of 
more general or more important application. It is a 
two edged sword of the spirit, directed equally against 
the enemies of Christ, who resort to the letter of the 
law in order to " justify themselves," and against his 
friends who would " condemn themselves," but, " with- 
out cause." For the same reason, such works are not 
\o be done at the dictation of man, or to proceed from 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 1 6 1 

a regard to the opinion of man ; neither is the extent of 
the Christian's beneficence to be prescribed by his fellow- 
creatures, or measured by them : to his own master he 
stands or falls. But let every one be " fully persuaded 
in his own mind." — Rom. xiv. 5, " Let every man 
prove his own work ; and then shall he have rejoicing* 
in himself alone, and not in another." — Gal. vi. 4. 

2. In his deeds of charity, the Christian is not only 
to begin with this right motive and principle, but to end 
with it also. He is not to mix it with a self-righteous 
disposition, and pollute it with that pride from which 
such a disposition springs. It is scarcely necessary to 
remind the believer, that none of his works can be done 
aright, if performed or intended as a price for the pur- 
chase of God's favour and acceptance. As " a man 
can receive nothing except it be given him of God," so 
neither can he give any thing in a manner acceptable 
to him, unless he acknowledges the hand of God in 
his gift. When, after the example of David and the 
princes, the Israelites presented their gifts for the 
building of the temple, it is said " the people rejoiced, 
for that they offered willingly ; because with perfect 
heart they offered willingly to the Lord ; " and it is 
added by the king, " but who am I, and what is my 
people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after 
this sort ? for all things come of thee ; and of thine 
own have we given thee." — 1 Chron. xxix. 9-14. A? 



162 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

the goodness of the saints extendeth not to God, in 
adding any thing unto Him, so neither does their right- 
eousness, for they have none but what he himself 
mveth. " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." — Rom. 
xiv. 23. 

Perhaps no passage of Scripture has been more wrest- 
ed by worldly men, or misunderstood even by disciples of 
Christ, who profess to believe in him as " their righteous- 
ness," than the words of the apostle, " For charity shall 
cover the multitude of sins." — 1 Pet. iv. 8 ; supposing, 
that to feed the poor and clothe the naked, and endow 
hospitals for the sick, may atone for transgression, and 
purchase the forgiveness of God. How many errors and 
false .interpretations are here combined into one false 
conclusion : as if the charity here mentioned consisted 
in alms-deeds, and other outward acts, not in the grace 
of Christian love, as evidently meant, and even declared 
in the very expression which precedes, " have fervent 
charity among yourselves ; " as if by covering sins it 
was meant that they could thus be compensated, and 
the sinner redeemed by the price paid, and the sacrifice so 
offered by himself ; instead of meaning, that many sins 
of evil report, and strife, and variance, and enmity, and 
all uncharitableness, would thus be stopped, or lessened, 
or averted, and the occasions of sin be prevented, and 
divisions healed; like that which is said by Solomon, 
" he that covereth a transgression seeketh love." — 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 163 

Prov. xvii. 9 ; or that of David, " for yet my prayer 
also shall be in their calamities ; when their judges are 
overthrown in stony places they shall hear my words, 
for they are sweet." — Ps. cxli. 5, 6 ; and as if the mul- 
titude of sins to be covered were the sins of him who is 
thus trafficking with his Maker and his Judge ; instead 
of being the sins of those whom that charity and for- 
bearance, which hopeth all things, endureth all things, 
which suffereth long, and is kind, shall be the means of 
winning to Christ, when thus manifested in his dis- 
ciples, and prove as coals of fire to melt their hearts, and 
bring them to lay down the weapons of their rebellion ; 
thus multiplying graces among themselves, and recom- 
mending them to others ; putting away " all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking — ■ 
with all malice;" and being " kind one to another, 
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for 
Christ's sake hath forgiven you." — Ephes. iv. 31, 32. 

It has been the practice, indeed, and doctrine of some 
corrupt churches to preach another Gospel, and to 
inculcate the merit of man's works of obedience as, in 
part at least, a ground of his justification with God ; a 
doctrine coinciding with the natural pride of unregene- 
rate man, and therefore acceptable to him ; but which 
is not only full of error in itself, dishonouring the 
Saviour, and blaspheming God, by lowering the stand- 
ard of his pure and holy law, but also fertile of every 



164 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

evil fruit to those by whom it is received. For it lulls 
men in a fatal security, under the vain belief that they 
can renew themselves unto repentance, and purchase 
the favour of God, when they can no longer enjoy the 
pleasures and the pomps of the world. Hence the 
penances and mortifications of the deluded Papist ; and 
hence his death-bed offerings and alms-deeds. And 
here the words of warning and expostulation may be 
again addressed to the reader, who has " not so learned 
Christ," but has " more perfect knowledge of that 
way " of salvation by him ; and let him be entreated 
to beware lest he too be led into the like infatuation ; 
and lest, while he utterly disclaims the doctrine of the 
Romish Church, he should, in his practice, justify it 
by deferring his work and labour of love. The foolish 
virgins in the parable, made a profession of religion as 
well as the wise ; for they, too, carried their lamps ; 
and when the cry was heard, they, too, arose and went 
forth to meet the bridegroom. But their lamps were 
not burning ; their oil had failed, and it was too late to 
renew it. — Matt. xxv. * 

* See from this parable, as from the whole tenor of Scripture, 
how devoid of all warrant is the doctrine of human merit, as a 
ground of justification in the sight of God. Their former works 
were of no avail to those whose lamps had gone out. And to those 
whose lamps were burning, it was Christ alone who opened the 
door. Above all, is that monstrous doctrine condemned here, of 
the superfluous merits of the saints, or any work of supererogation. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 165 

But let not the servant of God, from the anxious 
dread of cherishing a self-righteous spirit, fall into the 
opposite mistake of refusing to receive the benefit even 
now of those rewards promised in his w r ord, as a recom- 
pense and fruit of obedience. He does not, indeed, 
consider them as of debt, but of grace ; and as such, is 
warranted to look to them as a motive and encourage- 
ment. Moses, who was faithful in his house, had a 
respect thus to the recompense of reward. Job, David, 
and the holy patriarchs of old, thus " accepted the pro- 
mises." Christ himself, " though he was a son," and 
had right to all things, did not, while fulfilling his 
course on earth, refuse the like motive of encourage- 
ment ; but " for the joy set before him," endured the 
cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the 
right hand of God. In this, as well as in other cases, 
then, what God hath joined let not man put asunder. 
See Matt. v. 12, and vi. 6, — Luke xiv. 14, and vi. 35, 
—1 Tim. v. 18,— Heb. xi. 6,-2 John viii. 

It would be difficult, and is not necessary, to point 
out all the mistakes which may be committed in the 
estimate of duty, as it regards temporal possessions and 
the use of them. Men are prone to extremes. Many, 
as we know, in the times of superstition, and the abuse 
of Christian doctrine, have, in renouncing the world 

When the wise virgins were asked to give of their oil, of which 
they had a stock, " Not so," they reply, " lest there be not enough 
for us and you," &c. 



166 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

and its ways, thought it necessary to renounce not only 
the love, but the enjoyment of all earthly goods ; thus 
refusing the gifts of God, and attempting, as it were, 
to " go out of the world." And, still, some are found 
who, mistaking that word of our Saviour which was 
meant as a test of character and disposition, and acting 
upon it literally, have sold all their possessions, with 
the purpose of devoting the price more directly and ex- 
clusively to his cause ; thus " casting upon the Lord," 
not only their " care," and anxiety, and solicitude, but 
also, in great measure, if not entirely, their diligence 
and exertion in providing for themselves and their fami- 
lies things lawful and honest as pertaining to this life. 
But this course does not appear to be warranted by the 
word of God, or at least not to be a commanded duty, 
however sincere the faith, and single-eyed the purpose 
may be, of the individuals who pursue it. For, besides 
that such things are the gifts of God, to be enjoyed 
with thankfulness as such, it is to be feared, that those 
who adopt this plan may expose themselves to a temp- 
tation and a snare ; that the evil spirit of covetousness 
having for a time gone out, and in vain seeking rest, 
when he finds the house empty and swept, may return 
with greater force, and enter in again, and finally dwell 
there ; so that the last state of such men may be worse 
than the first. 

Others are to be found, who, taking advantage of 
certain passages in Scripture, where Christians are ex- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 167 

horted to practise hospitality, fortify themselves in a 
belief that the people of God may, without inconsistency, 
associate freely with the people of this world in the en- 
joyment of all its pleasures and luxuries ; escaping thus 
from the spirit and true force of the precept. Hospi- 
tality, indeed, is not forbidden by the Gospel, but re- 
commended and enjoined by the apostles upon all, espe- 
cially upon the overseers of the Christian Churches ; and 
was practised by the early disciples to a large extent, and 
with much care. The example of servants of the Lord 
in early times, of Abraham and Sarah, of Lot and 
Manoah, is referred to by the Apostle Paul, as an en- 
couragement to the faithful in this duty. But the grace 
thus commended, it is almost superfluous to observe, is 
not that courtesy of the world which receives the name, 
but a branch of charity, proceeding from brotherly kind- 
ness and love to man. The hospitality of the world 
springs more frequently s from self-love, and terminates 
not seldom in sensual or refined self-indulgence, or 
ostentatious pride. # Christian hospitality is displayed 



' It is remarkable, in the comparison of rude with civilized 
countries, that the virtue or native disposition of hospitality has 
commonly been found to prevail most among the former, and even 
among those tribes who have by the polite nations of the earth 
been characterized as barbarian. So that " these barbarous people,' 1 
in showing "no little kindness," often approach nearer to the 
grace in question, than those whose greater refinement has seldom 
failed to terminate in greater selfishness. 



168 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

chiefly in feeding the hungry, refreshing the weary, 
and harbouring the friendless stranger, and the outcast. 
Its spirit is thus characterized in the Gospel : " When 
thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor 
thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neigh- 
bours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense 
be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the 
poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind : and thou shalt 
be blessed ; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou 
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." — 
Luke xiv. 12-14. The reason is here given along 
with the injunction; namely, that hospitality is not to 
be exercised from worldly inducements, or with the 
prospect of worldly recompense and return. And it is 
an ingredient in all acts of Christian beneficence. " If 
ye do good to them which do good to you," being en- 
forced to the duty by that consideration and value, 
" what thank have ye ? for sinners also," that is un- 
regenerate and worldly men, " do even the same." — 
Luke vi. 33. An interested motive, that is to say, vitiates 
what is done in the guise of liberality, and even though 
it be offered as a gift. 

And here it is not irrelevant to observe, that this 
principle forms a marked distinction between the man 
of the world and the Christian, in the general tenor of 
their acts of benevolence. The latter gives to those who 
have need ; the worldly man commonly gives to those 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 169 

from whom he expects, if not immediately, yet indirectly 
and ultimately, some equivalent; and if not in money, 
perhaps in influence, or it may be simply in reputation. 
And this applies to testamentary, as well as present 
gifts. One bequeaths what may remain at his death to 
those for whom it will be a useful aid ; the other as 
frequently bequeaths to the rich and honourable among 
men, giving his sum of more to him that has too 
much ; and still attempting, even where he may have 
no descendant of his own, to associate his name with a 
kind of posthumous repute of worldly greatness in the 
house of another. 

The precept now under consideration is delivered in 
the style and manner which is peculiar to the teaching 
of Christ, and that divine authority which speaks not 
to the outward ear, but to the heart and thought ; is not 
confined to the letter, or squared to the immediate ap- 
prehension of the hearer, x or qualified in terms by what 
are nevertheless its inherent limitations, but is ex- 
pressed in language of a power and weight commensurate 
to the force of the opposite bias in the natural disposi- 
tions of man. It is similar to other declarations from 
the same lips, as they are made in opposition to the 
doctrines of men, and to the contradiction of the unre- 
newed mind. " I say unto you, that ye resist not 
evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue 



170 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have 
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to 
go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh 
thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not 
thou away." — Matt. v. 39-42. " It is easier for a camel 
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man 
to enter into the kingdom of God." — Matt. xix. 24. 
" Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou re- 
moved, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not 
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things 
which he saith shall come to pass ; he shall have what- 
soever he saith." — Mark xi. 23. " Take, therefore, no 
thought for the morrow." — Matt. vi. 34. " If any man 
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and 
wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea and his 
own life also, he cannot be my disciple." — Luke xiv. 
26. The just interpretation of these, and similar pas- 
sages of Scripture, is to be found in Scripture itself; 
which, if taken in pieces and disjointed, may appear dis- 
cordant, as every system would; but, received together 
as it stands^ is in all its proportions symmetrical and 
whole. As to the precept in question, which has led to 
these transient remarks, if any one should infer that 
social intercourse with his brethren and kindred, or per- 
sons of whatever outward condition, and that expression 
of kind affection which, in common speech, we call 
hospitality, is forbidden or discouraged, he would evi- 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 17 i 

dently pervert the word of God, and offend against the 
generation of his children. The example of Christ 
himself would contradict him ; and his inspired apostle 
would contradict him, who has put a very different con- 
struction upon the rule; " Use hospitality one to another, 
without grudging." — 1 Pet. 4-9. 

Other mistakes might be adverted to in connection 
with this subject, and many questions may, and have 
been stirred as to the line of Christian duty in regard to 
temporal goods ; among others, as to the lawfulness of 
particular callings, and the mode of exercising them. 
But, in general, such questions rather lead to casuistical 
distinctions and debates than to clear views of duty, or 
to godly edifying. The precepts of the Gospel, read 
and studied with prayer, will seldom fail to resolve all 
such doubts. Or if scruples yet remain in the mind of 
any believer, a conscience void of reproach as to the in- 
tentions of the heart, and.the motives of conduct, may 
rest in peaceful assurance on the character and promises 
of God. As he who is not for Christ, in purpose of full 
obedience, is against him, so he who is not against him, 
in the like purpose and intention, is for him, and upon 
his side. But enough, and perhaps more than enough 
has already been said upon these topics. Let it only 
be remarked farther, that neither the sin of covetous- 
ness, nor the grace of Christian liberality is confined to 
any particular rank or station in human life. They are 



i/2 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

affections of the heart, and neither wealth nor poverty 
are exempt from the one, or excluded from the other. 
It is sometimes supposed, indeed, that the passion of 
covetousness is one of those from which the man of 
low degree is somehow exempt. But there cannot be 
a greater mistake. The rich man has some peculiar 
means and opportunities of exhibiting the vice in acts 
of oppression, for the increase of his wealth, which are 
not open to his poorer brethren. But in the latter, the 
passion may be equally strong, and may appear in acts 
of equal injustice. For it is undoubted that the per- 
son of inferior station, whose mercenary disposition leads 
him to withhold from his superior what is his right and 
due, whether by evading performance of the personal 
service, or payment of the value of his possession, which 
have been stipulated, is equally unjust, and equally the 
slave of an avaricious spirit. It is the perfection of the 
divine law and precept, as distinguished from many of 
man's judgments, that it applies equally to every rank 
as well as to every case. Hence, among others, the 
command, " neither shalt thou countenance a poor 
man in his cause." — Exod. xxiii. 3 ; that is to say, in 
matter of right and justice thou shalt not respect per- 
sons ; not even the poor ; though in matters of grace 
and liberality it is far otherwise. 

The forms in which this passion of covetousness may 
appear are too numerous and diversified to admit even 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 173 

of being classed, and can only be indicated by desultory 
examples. Some of these have been adduced in the 
foregoing pages ; by which it is seen to what extent the 
vice prevails in this country, both in the public and 
political body, and among individuals and particular 
classes of the community, and in all ranks and condi- 
tions of society. The forms are varied by circumstances 
and occasion, but the animating spirit is uniform and 
permanent. Thus, in acts of a public nature, and with- 
out dwelling on those greater examples of national rapa- 
city which have been exhibited in the violent partition 
of whole countries, and unoffending people, the system 
of what is called privateering, which has, with the sanc- 
tion of their governments, been practised to such an 
extent by the inhabitants of Great Britain, as well as 
some other maritime powers of Europe, and free States 
of America, affords another instance of mercantile and 
national cupidity, directly N abetted by Christian monarchs 
and their counsellors, where the most common principles 
of justice, and common feelings of humanity, have been 
openly violated and set at nought. It is certain that 
many hundreds of these predatory vessels were commis- 
sioned against the Dutch and American traders, during 
the wars with those countries, in the latter part of last 
century ; merchants being thus armed against merchants 
for mutual destruction, without a ground of quarrel ; pro- 
fessing too the same religious faith, and engaged in the 
same pursuits of peace. 



174 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

The pretext for such national and wholesale piracy 
is, of course, the annoyance of a national enemy, and in- 
demnification for the charges of war; and, under this 
cloak, and without consideration of the justice or in- 
justice of the war itself, were thousands of individuals, 
engaged in useful occupations, assailed, it might be, 
unawares, and with violence robbed and stripped of 
their property, on the open seas, and -themselves, if 
they attempted to defend it, overcome by an armed 
force, and murdered with impunity. That war should 
be carried on without a great measure of private wrong 
and suffering would be a vain expectation ; but that 
robbery and confiscation, avowedly directed against in- 
dividuals engaged in the arts of peace and the inter- 
change of commodities, should be organized under the 
deliberate authority of the rulers of a Christian land, 
admits of no palliation, or of any excuse to screen it 
from just indignation.* 

* That well-known provision, which was introduced, chiefly 
through the exertions of Franklin the American plenipotentiary, 
into the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United 
States and the King of Prussia, affords a model of equitable legis- 
lation among nations, in this great department of public morals ; 
and which, if it could be carried into full effect, would deprive 
war of much of its most revolting, because wanton and gratuitous, 
ferocity. The article is in these words: — " Article 23. If war 
should arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants of 
either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to re- 
main nine months, to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and 
may depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation 
or hindrance ; and all women and children, scholars of every 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 175 

Again, in the prosecution of commercial interests, 
through the medium of new settlements, how many 
tribes and nations of men have suffered the greatest 
wrong and oppression through our cupidity ! how many 
districts have been unpeopled, and the natives and deni- 
zens of extensive countries wholly, or almost wholly, 
exterminated, to make way for British encroachment, 
and give security to British possession ! Such has been 
the work of our national covetousness in portions ot 
North America and Australia, — and such is the work 
now going on in other parts of the latter region, and in 
the cape settlements of Africa ; following too closely, 
in the latter instance, the policy of the preceding occu- 
pants. In these, and many other ways, we seem to have 

faculty, cultivators of the earth, artisans, manufacturers, and 
fishermen, unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, and 
places ; and in general all others whose occupations are for the 
common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to 
continue their respective employments, and shall not be molested 
in their persons, nor shall their houses or goods be burned, or 
otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the armed force 
of the enemy into whose power, by the events of war, they may 
happen to fall : but if any thing is necessary to be taken from 
them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at 
a reasonable price. And all merchant and trading vessels employ- 
ed in exchanging the v products of different places, and thereby ren- 
dering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life, 
more easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to 
pass free and unmolested ; and neither of the contracting powers 
shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, 
empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or inter- 
rupt such commerce." 

H 



176 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

adopted the fatal principle, that national prosperity, 
whatever may be the case with that of individuals, is 
unconnected with moral rectitude ; and that to insure 
the greatness of an empire, it becomes necessary to 
make a sacrifice of national good faith and uprightness. 
For Britain, instead of acting upon the latter principles, 
instead of employing her resources and superior attain- 
ments in diffusing the truths of religion, a love of justice, 
and knowledge of humane arts among those whose terri- 
tory she invaded or acquired, instead of extending over 
their people the shield of her protection, and winning 
them by kindness, was intent only upon gain, and the 
increase of her revenue ; and in the pursuit of these ob- 
jects committed acts of rapacity which have not been 
exceeded by the most barbarous among heathen na- 
tions. She did not, by her connexion with those coun- 
tries, as an empire, and independent of the solitary 
and unsupported efforts of individual Christians and 
philanthropists, confer one moral boon upon their in- 
habitants ; she imprinted and left behind her numberless 
traces of her greed, but of sympathy and benevolence, 
none. Nay, more, from this lust of gain, she even 
joined in their peculiar and hateful vices, and this 
Christian people became a partaker with idolaters ; 
making, in some of those countries, the rites of a hea- 
thenish and cruel superstition, with its gross pollutions 
and its human sacrifices, a source of her territorial 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 177 

revenue; while, at the same time, boasting her own 
religious privileges, and her purer code of morality. 
Such has been her conduct down to a very recent 
period. And although, under the blessing of God, 
a better system has commenced, and a better light 
dawned upon some of our national possessions in re- 
mote regions, it is well known that not with our legis- 
lature or executive councils, but with Christian churches 
and individuals, the efforts commenced, and by them 
the work, amidst great discouragement, was undertaken, 
In former times, the East and West India colonies 
were the great theatre of our national and mercantile 
selfishness and avarice, in all its forms of monopoly and 
plunder. As these channels have in a great measure 
been dried up, the same spirit is seeking out others, 
and in various directions ; appearing, perhaps, in equal 
activity, and to an equal extent, at home. It is not, 
indeed, there seen under the same forms of unjust ag- 
gression, or accompanied with usurpation and violence ; 
for, happily, our code of domestic law, imperfect as it is in 
some respects as to its moral tendency, permits no such 
indulgence; but still its ends are prosecuted with the 
same earnestness and versatility of resource. Hence, as 
already observed, the numerous adventures in commerce 
and manufacture, by private and chartered corporations, 
and the eager attempt of their supporters to blazon their 
several schemes, and enlarge the sphere of their oper- 



178 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

ations. Hence, to take another set of cases now of 
frequent occurrence, namely, the many Life Assurance 
Societies which have sprung up, and are yearly increas- 
ing ; we see how, in some of them, not confined to their 
original object, but devised for mercantile profit, the 
spirit of covetousness is to be traced, not only in the 
minute and anxious care employed upon their organiza- 
tion, where all the helps and resources of science are 
borrowed, and the aids of experience solicited and col- 
lected from every quarter, and brought to bear upon the 
object of securing the utmost possible amount of gain 
from the contingencies of human existence ; but is 
apparent also in the competition and rivalry among 
these different associations, and the skill, and often 
artifice, employed for attracting the public notice and 
favour,* Hence, again, the sensitive regard to pecu- 
niary interests which appears in the Legislature; where 
many important and salutary objects of a public nature, 
however clearly supported by moral principle, are so 
often defeated by the more wakeful, and persevering, 
and united efforts of those corporations, whose imme- 
diate and personal interests might be affected by them ; 
whether such corporations happen to be lay or eccle- 

* As those Assurance Societies are constituted, it may also be 
observed, that it is the rich chiefly who share in their advan- 
tages ; for to such persons as have a moderate and precarious in- 
come, the scheme has no practical application. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 179 

siastical, whether a society of jurists, or merchants, or 
agriculturists. 

We see, again, how other Christian countries and their 
governments have, whether their particular plans mav be 
well devised for the end or otherwise, patronized and en- 
couraged the education, religious, moral, and' intellectual, 
of their people, as a public and national object ; and al- 
lotted funds from their treasuries for this important pur- 
pose, under the direction of a Minister of State or other 
public functionary. But the British Legislature, for in 
the spirit of this policy the Parliaments of Scotland did 
not participate, has till of late taken little interest, and the 
Protestant English Legislature took none, in this great 
question. We see, in like manner, how the public coun- 
cils of this kingdom, while adhering to, and defending 
in theory, the principle of national establishments of re- 
ligion, have not in their acts followed out that principle 
with consistency, but have long withheld, except in 
occasional and special cases, pressed upon their atten- 
tion, the funds which were necessary for the full ac- 
complishment of its objects. Hence, large portions of 
the population, in different parts of the empire, and of 
these chiefly the most devout and the most orderly, 
were gradually detached from the communion of the 
national churches, if not given up to the priests of a 
false religion, or to become the victims of infidelity : 
and hence, even the principle itself of a public estab- 



180 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

lishment of religion, and its adaptation to the spiritual 
wants of the community, has come to be called in ques- 
tion, and a serious obstacle been thrown in the way of 
its effective support. 

Is it not evident from these, and many other instances 
of a similar kind which might be adduced, for it is 
not easy to follow any strict method in treating such 
a subject, that the idolatry of wealth is the besetting 
sin of Britain, actuating every class, and operating in 
every department ? That from the least to the 
greatest all are given to covetousness ? Here, more 
than elsewhere, it is seen that honour and distinction 
follow the preponderance of wealth ; and that, in the 
councils of the State, the collection and distribution of 
money, and of that by far the largest portion expended 
on the purposes of war, has been the great and para- 
mount object of consideration. 

The English aristocracy, both clerical and lay, have, 
in their selfish idolatry of wealth, and the indulgence of 
their personal and covetous views, too much separated 
themselves from the other classes of the community; and, 
whether as members of the Legislature, or otherwise in 
their collective capacity, while diligent in whatever re- 
gards trade and finance, and the principles of taxation, 
and the improvement of the revenue, have shown a fatal 
remissness, or a fatal parsimony, in what is connected 
with the religious and moral welfare of the people at 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 181 

large. Through this supineness and neglect on the 
part of their superiors and rulers, and notwithstanding 
our peculiar advantages as a Protestant nation, we see 
that w^hole masses of the growing population have been 
left in a state of moral destitution, as well as intellec- 
tual debasement. And the results are too apparent, as 
now acknowledged by all, in the disorder and threatened 
disorganization of the social body. 

It would be easy, if it were necessary, to enlarge on 
these view 7 s, and to add many more illustrations of this 
worldly and selfish policy, as exemplified both in public 
bodies and individuals. The sum of all is, that no 
sinful passion is more opposed to the whole tenor of 
Gospel doctrine, and more inconsistent with Christian 
duty, than the sin of covetousness. The avaricious 
man, not less than the sensualist, " minds earthly 
things," and affords one of the great examples of that 
selfish spirit, and that lQve of the present world, which 
is opposed to the love of God and the love of man. 
It is remarkable that the Scriptures give no instance of 
a covetous person who is classed among the people and 
children of God ; unless the case of Zaccheus be con- 
sidered an exception ; in which respect this sin is distin- 
guished even from others, however heinous, into some acts 
of which His servants have been at times surprised or be- 
trayed through powerful temptation ; and from the do- 
minion of which thev have been recovered and restored, 



182 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

For this evil passion is not, like others, manifested in some 
open act, single, it may be, and transient, but is a state 
and disposition of the heart, by which all its affections 
become hardened ; so that, when grown habitual and 
indulged, it may even be unperceived and almost un- 
suspected by him whom it has subdued. It well be- 
comes the Christian, then, to be on his guard against 
those toils from which, if entangled by them, escape is 
nearly impossible. 

But there are still some views and considerations of a 
general nature, and applicable to the whole of the pre- 
sent subject, in so far as respects individual character 
and conduct, which it is important to notice before 
closing this Inquiry. These have reference to every 
case where benevolence and good will are called into 
exercise ; but more particularly to works of Christian 
liberality; to which, therefore, the observations that fol- 
low are more immediately directed. 

1. Beware that temporal motives and aims do not 
intrude in matters of Christian beneficence, and mix 
themselves with acts of a strictly religious character. 

This unhallowed union takes place in different ways ; 
but these may, in the greatest number of cases, be 
resolved into ostentation, or a selfish desire after the 
good opinion of our fellow-men. This is the principle 
and motive of the pharisee, who performs his alms- 
deeds, as he does his religious worship and services, to 



THE BAK OF SCRIPTURE. 183 

be seen of men ; but is directly opposed to the Gos- 
pel principle and precept, requiring that these deeds 
should be done in secret ; that is to say, from the 
inward principle of duty, and motion of the affections, 
as distinguished not only from the mere outward act, 
but from all desire of human applause. Although there 
is no age and time of the world where these unworthy 
motives do not operate, yet there are certain seasons and 
states of society where they are apt to prevail to a 
greater extent, and with a more numerous class of per- 
sons than at others. And it will be allowed that one of 
those periods is the present day, when extensive and 
powerful associations have been formed for religious 
purposes, which embrace a large portion of the com- 
munity, and of which the proceedings are carried on 
with great publicity, and proclaimed, as it were, on the 
house-tops. Men of worldly, or at least doubtful minds, 
may in such circumstances not seldom be induced to 
take a part in these operations, with the hope of shar- 
ing in the honour of the work; or, at all events, of 
rising in the estimation of their fellow-creatures, and 
obtaining, at the expense of some pecuniary sacrifice, 
perhaps of no great amount, the rank and character of 
Christian philanthropists. 

It is to be feared that if the operations of those great 
religious societies could be conducted so as not to meet 

the public eye, if they too, could, like individuals, not 

h 2 



184 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

let their left hand know what their right hand doeth, 
the amount of their revenues might suffer no trifling 
diminution. Whether, and how far, the treasure swell- 
ed by such contributions may, notwithstanding the un- 
worthy motives of those who so contribute, be over- 
ruled for the promotion of pure and truly Christian 
ends, is not a question to be decided by man. But, 
w r ith respect to the individual acting on such worldly 
inducements, who shall say that he is authorized to 
expect any profit from the deed to his own soul? 
" Verily," says the Saviour himself, "he has his reward;" 
inasmuch as that applause on which he secretly set bis 
heart will be certainly bestowed ; but, in so far as the 
false principle operated* there too must his reward not 
only begin but end. 

In this way there is reason to fear that not a few 
persons may be ensnared to their own hurt. For, 
as there is a simony in the church, so there is a 
certain lay simony in the world also ; an attempt to 
purchase with money the name of a Christian grace, in 
which as to its real spirit and essence the bidder has 
neither lot nor part. May it not even be said of him 
who thus acts, and in so far as these are the thoughts 
of his heart, that his money shall perish with him ? 

But farther, the publicity and bustle of great monied 
institutions for religious purposes have a tendency, in 
various other ways, to deform the excellent grace of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE, 185 

charity. Christian beneficence shrinks from display and 
tumult. But in those great theatres of public benevo- 
lence, as they are most frequently conducted, though 
the feeling: may be strongly excited for the time by 
the contagion of a popular assemblage, it is one rather 
of disturbance than of solid and lasting impression ; 
alloyed, too, as it often is, by the exhibition of heated 
oratory, and the undue pre-eminence of mere human 
agency, such as we see manifested in other numerous 
meetings, for objects of a character entirely secular. In 
all large and mixed assemblies, the style of the speakers 
is, by a kind of necessity, rather adapted to move the 
passions of those whom they address, than calculated to 
reach the deeper and calm recesses of the mind and 
heart. The feelings thus awakened by some powerful 
address, of high sound and great promise, will too often 
be observed to pass away with its echoes. Further, 
the very extent itself of the operations, and of the 
machinery provided, is apt to generate a measure of 
pride and assumption in the patrons^ and conductors, 
and great contributors to their funds. " Is not this 
great Zion, that I have built for the house of the 
kingdom, by my might, and for the honour of my 
majesty?" 

We see, too, how in some other ways the human 
passions come to be fostered and indulged, where 
Christian charity is much directed into these channels, 



186 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

and exhibited to the public view ; leading to an er- 
roneous estimate of religious principle ; as if it were 
to be rated only or chiefly by outward acts, without a 
knowledge of inward character and consistency ; lead- 
ing, also, to a scrutiny of individual conduct in the dis- 
tribution of money or other goods, according to the 
calculation and judgment of self-constituted arbiters ; 
and inclining them, under a specious cover of zeal, to 
busy themselves here as elsewhere in other men's mat- 
ters. Hence comes the natural desire of dictating, in 
a manner, how, and to what amount, and to what parti- 
cular society in preference, individual contributions 
ought to be given ; thus abridging or spying out 
Christian liberty, and prescribing to the consciences 
of men. This is a spirit not unfrequently generated 
by associations of such imposing form, and the publi- 
city of all their acts ; but it is widely different from 
that spirit which covers the multitude of sins. 

It may be repeated here, but without pursuing the 
subject further, that, in the operations referred to, the 
rich are brought too prominently into view, and those 
who have little or comparatively nothing to bestow out 
of their temporal possessions are too much separated, if 
not excluded from the work ; a consequence which 
must necessarily follow where the ostensible and im- 
mediate object is the acquisition of ample resources in 
money. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 187 

Connected with this part of the subject, it may be 
remarked that the notoriety which is now given to all 
transactions and occurrences, not only of a public, but 
also of a more private character, through the medium 
of the press, tends not a little to foster the natural feel- 
ings of pride and selT-complacency even in works of 
charity. That desire of publicity w 7 hich is so prevalent 
finds an easy means of gratification through those 
channels now widely opened. But when the particular 
alms-deeds and charitable gifts of individuals are thus 
proclaimed, as we often see them, in the common jour- 
nals, introduced, too, with some flattering encomium, or 
inscribed with some title of " generosity" or " muni- 
ficence," it is to be feared that the practice, although it 
may sometimes excite others to outward acts of liber- 
ality, is little favourable to the true spirit of Christian 
benevolence, if not even calculated to cherish a spirit 
more resembling that of the Pharisee. 

2. Beware of expecting, through the employment, 
and by the operation of money, effects which the Word 
of God does not promise. 

It is remarkable that so great results should now be 
looked for, in the promulgation of the Gospel, by the 
use of an instrument which was unacknowledged by 
Christ himself, and by his apostles after him, as a 
mean for the promotion of that great end. The com- 
mand, indeed, was given to those whom He sent forth, 



188 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

that they should preach the Gospel to every creature ; 
and how can they preach except they be sent ? But 
the means enjoined were spiritual means. That the 
messengers of the Gospel should be furnished with what 
is essential for their temporal necessities, whether of 
their own providing, or supplied l)y the aid of others, is 
undoubtedly not lawful only but necessary ; for there is 
no warrant to expect a continuance of miraculous inter- 
positions where ordinary means are within reach. And, 
in like manner, it is not only lawful, but most right and 
expedient, that copies of the written word should be 
multiplied by those methods which have been dis- 
covered and provided in the providence of God. But 
still these are in all respects subordinate instruments, 
which ought not to be advanced to undue import- 
ance ; although it is the natural tendency of man 
to view them otherwise, because they lie within his 
own power, independent of those other means which 
are beyond his control. And here again the great 
monied societies formed for the distribution of the 
Scriptures, and the supply of missionary tekchers, and 
other religious objects, and works of Christian love, aid- 
ed as they are willing to be from the coffers of worldly 
men, are, insensibly perhaps, but powerfully, led to count 
upon their own exertions, if not solely, at least chiefly 
and directly, for the attainment of ends which are alto- 
gether spiritual. This is the Mammon of the Platform. 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 189 

Money, or that which money represents, is too much 
regarded in the present day, even where the motive 
and the object are religious ; and the question is not 
seldomer asked, what is the expenditure of a religious 
society, than what has it been the instrument of ac- 
complishing ? As if by the unlimited extent of funds, 
and number of teachers and of books, the great ends in 
view would almost by necessary consequence follow. In- 
stead of subordinate instruments, these come to be con- 
sidered and spoken of as direct agents ; and, instead of 
being supplied and increased as a way is opened for 
them in the providence of God, it seems to be too fre- 
quently supposed that they need only to be sent forth 
in due and sufficient multitude, in order to secure the 
wished result. In short, the important difference is 
apt to be forgot, between that which is spiritual and 
that which is external in religion. The earthly wea- 
pons and agencies copie, if not to displace in the 
imaginations of the actors, at least to overshadow in 
the view of the spectators, that only agency which 
can render them effectual, and which so often works 
with few and weak instruments more powerfully than 
with the many and the strong. The effects produced 
in the diffusion of Gospel truth have never corres- 
ponded to the number of the agents, or the wealth 
expended, according to the vain judgment and anticipa- 
tion of man. On the contrary, it is not too much to 



190 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

say that the spiritual blessing has been more abundant 
where the temporal resources have been the most incon- 
siderable. 

Is there not even a danger that the very wealth of 
great religious associations should prove directly injuri- 
ous to their cause ? Suppose that their wish should be 
fulfilled to the utmost, and that they should be enabled^ 
by the liberality of the rich, and the countenance of the 
great, to send forth numerous bodies of missionaries, 
and provided with the most ample outward means, 
would there not be imminent hazard that the whole 
mass should become leavened with secular and worldly 
principles and feelings ? With respect to the agents 
and dispensers of this treasure, the temptation is obvi- 
ous, of leading many into the field from corrupt motives 
and for unworthy ends. And with respect to the ob- 
jects of these great exertions of beneficence, is there not 
an equal danger, that seeing the abundant worldly pos- 
sessions, and the secular influence of such bodies, they 
may be attracted to join their ranks, not from a desire 
of spiritual knowledge, or the love of truth, but from 
the hope of other gain, and an expectation of some un- 
defined temporal advantage ? 

In short, wherever money assumes a prominent place, 
and becomes an important aim, it leads, in all intellec- 
tual, and still more in all spiritual pursuits, to danger and 
disturbance ; preserving, in every department, its true 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 191 

character to the last, as the root of evil. The danger 
ought not, therefore, to be overlooked in the manage- 
ment even of the most sacred cause. 

No reader of these pages will, for a moment, suppose 
that the remarks now made are directed, in the way of 
exception, against the ultimate aim of any' association 
for objects having a truly Christian character and design. 
The observations apply not in any degree to the pur- 
poses, but solely and exclusively to some of the means 
which are now so usually employed for carrying these 
purposes into effect ; and to such means, in so far only 
as they are open to the objections which have been 
stated, and consequently exposed to the danger. It is 
impossible to doubt that a very large amount of good 
has been effected through these bodies, and much of 
which might not have been effected otherwise, or at all 
events in so short a time. The observations now 
made are more especially suggested in the way of 
warning to the individual members and promoters of 
these associations ; that thev should examine their own 
principles and motives, and see whether the apostolic 
method and order is pursued by them ; namely, of hav- 
ing first given themselves to the Lord, and then unto 
the Christian society for his sake ; whether they are 
sincerely and in truth actuated by that zeal for the ex- 
tension of the Gospel, and that love for the souls of 
men, which their profession thus loudly testifies : or in 



192 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

what degree they are influenced by self-esteem and 
gratulation, when their contributions of money are an- 
nounced in the hearing of their fellow-men. And as 
to the conductors and managers of such bodies, a 
twofold caution is not less necessary and important: 
first, that they too should examine their motives and 
inducements, personally and individually, for engaging 
in the work; and, secondly, that in carrying it on, 
they should employ those agents only as their instru- 
ments, in whose views and characters they have a well- 
grounded confidence. The Apostles did not " desire a 
gift" as for themselves, in the contributions of the Chris- 
tian churches ; but they desired collections from the 
converts as evidence of their faith, and for the promo- 
tion of Christian and brotherly love. In the same 
spirit it befits both the friends of the institutions in 
question, to see that their contributions are given, and 
the managers, to see that they are received, not as gifts 
to the particular society, but as helps to the cause in 
which it is engaged. 

3. Money, and it is the same with all which it 
represents, is under no circumstances, and in no 
degree, the standard of Christian liberality and bene- 
volence. 

Charity, indeed, must be seen in its fruits ; but, of 
those fruits, the gift of money is not a necessary, far 
less the only or essential part or sign. We know that 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 193 

the fruit of charity may appear in a cup of water as well 
as in a purse of gold ; and there are possible situa- 
tions where the former would be a greater boon to re- 
ceive, and a greater sacrifice to bestow. We know, 
likewise, that one may give his whole goods to feed the 
poor, and yet the grace of charity be wanting. It de- 
pends not on the circumstances or the power of the 
individual, but on his principle and the state of his 
heart. The rich man who gives something out of his 
abundance, and the poorer man who gives nothing out 
of his penury, may be in the like condemnation. And 
the rich man who gives largely, and the poorest man 
who gives a little, may both be partakers of the grace 
in equal measure. But these, though evident truths, 
are apt to be overlooked or confounded, and the distinc- 
tion lost or thrown into the shade, amidst the sunshine 
of great establishments, which, by their public meetings, 
and widely diffused reports, and the extent of their 
pecuniary transactions, are so much exposed to view. 

4. But, though these cautions and qualifications are 
not uncalled for by the present situation and proceed- 
ings of what is called the religious world, it is equally 
necessary, and equally important, to remember that they 
form no excuse, and afford no plea whatever, to the il- 
liberal and penurious. The dangers in question are a 
ground to the Christian, not for withholding his money 
or his possessions, either privately given, or contributed 



194 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

through the means of associations, in aid of religious 
objects which are in themselves good and approved ; 
but only a reason for examining his own motives, and 
exercising a Christian prudence in selecting the ob- 
jects and the channels of his benevolence. He that 
would make the particular circumstances referred to 
a reason for refusing his help altogether, or not giving 
largely, is plainly using them for a pretext, and as a 
cloak to his covetousness. In the man of a worldly 
mind, it would be more honest and consistent to say 
that he disapproves of the object, or is indifferent to it, 
and denies his aid on that account. But in the pro- 
fessing Christian the inconsistency is still greater ; for 
he would thus take refuge in the mistake or sin of 
others, to indulge his own avarice and selfishness. 
By refusing, under a false pretence, to contribute ac- 
cording to his ability, and as God has prospered him, 
for objects which he professes to approve, he con- 
victs himself as in heart either a hypocrite or a miser. 
Thus it is equally evident, that while the fact of 
giving, however largely, even to useful Christian pur- 
poses, is not alone an evidence of Christian liberality, 
the fact of withholding from such objects, or giving 
aid by a meagre and a scanty supply, is, on the 
part of him who approves of them, a certain evidence 
of covetousness ; although the measure and form of 
his gift must, with the aid and under the teaching of 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 195 

divine precept, be referred to the bar of his own con- 
science. 

To correct the evils and avert the dangers which 
have been referred to, it is necessary that those who are 
thus classed among the friends and supporters of the 
Christian cause should examine whether they hold the 
foundation on which alone that character can perma- 
nently and securely rest. The direction for this exami- 
nation, as already observed, is given by the apostle ; 
and it can scarcely be too often repeated : " Moreover, 
brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed 
on the churches of Macedonia ; how that in a great 
trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their 
deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 
For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their 
power, they were willing of themselves, . . . And this thev 
did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves 
to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." — 2 Cor. 
viii. 1-5. 

Let every Christian, then, whatever his share of 
temporal goods, or his station and employment may be, 
but more especially let him who is rich and abounds 
in this world's goods, and who is, therefore, more 
especially, a steward of this particular talent, examine 
himself, whether he is now occupying it in his Master's 
service, or allowing it to remain unoccupied, i( What 
do ye more than others ?" is an inquiry which every one 



196 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

ought personally to apply and answer to himself, as a 
test of the state of his heart. He knows the grace of 
the Lord Jesus Christ ; but does it constrain him, not 
only to deny ungodliness, but to keep all ihe command- 
ments ? He acknowledges the authority and binding 
obligation of the law of God ; but does he make an 
exception, in his own case, of any one sinful indulgence, 
with a hope or wish to exempt it from that law ? Is 
he accumulating wealth for uses that are merely selfish, 
and does his pursuit of it interfere with any commanded 
duty towards God or man ? Is he following any business 
or occupation, which is inconsistent with the spirit of the 
religion which he professes ; or following it in ways 
which that religion forbids ? In transacting with others, 
does he adopt the narrow and selfish policy of men of 
the world, whose contest in their mutual dealings is 
chiefly how they shall make the most advantageous 
bargain in buying, and selling, and exchange? or 
does he rather imitate the pious and liberal strife be- 
tween Abraham and Ephron, the son of Zohar, and the 
people of Heth. — Gen. xxiii; or that between David 
and Oman the Jebusite ? — J Chron. xxL In his gifts 
and works of charity, does he calculate what will be 
held sufficient in the esteem of his fellow-men ? or does 
he rather look to the necessity of the case, and the 
ability which he has, and the estimate which God will 
make, from whom he has received his stewardship ? 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 197 

Does he, in short, make the Word of God the test by 
which to try his own state in respect to things temporal, 
as well as things spiritual ? Is he, in the language 
of Scripture, crucified to the world? or does the 
love of money still tie him down to earth, or hold too 
large a place in his affections, so that his prayers are 
hindered ? If it does not choke the good seed of the 
word, and turn him aside with them who through such 
earthly attachments at last make shipwTeck of their 
faith, and " having loved this present world," walk no 
more with Christ, and desert the company of his fol- 
lowers ; still if that root of bitterness is alive, it will 
assuredly grow up and trouble him. 

And here it may be observed, that in moral questions 
it is not the extreme case which is the most dangerous, 
or productive of greatest evil by the example of vice. 
The character and condition of the miser, for example, 
is not such as to invite imitation, but on the contrary to 
excite a feeling of disgusi and even abhorrence. It is in 
stages far short of his unhappy state that the contagion 
of an avaricious spirit exerts its influence with the great- 
est power. And it is, therefore, in the beginning of the 
disease, while the disposition may be secretly indulged, 
and little observed by others, that the caution is most 
required. And this watchfulness is necessary through- 
out the whole period of the Christian's life. As a covet- 
ous disposition grows more insensibly than some others, 



198 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO 

which break forth in open sin, so it is one of those which 
more especially increase with age. For there is a sea- 
son of youthful and buoyant passion , which delights in 
the pleasures of the world ; and there is a season 
of thought and anxiety, when its cares are more apt 
to take possession of the mind. And sad, indeed, 
is the condition of that man who, at the very period 
when he ought to have his light shining more and 
more as the perfect day, and to feel most disengag- 
ed from earth and all its attractions, is sitting in dark- 
ness and disquietude, clinging even yet to the things 
of time, and looking back upon the pursuits of this life 
from the portals of the tomb. But there is no fit 
season for avarice, more than for any other sin. The 
return of the Son of Man is as the coming of a thief 
in the night. Behold, the judge is already at the door, 
and his voice even now sounding in the ear of his 
servants ; " give an account of thy stewardship." 

Considering the value of this talent, the call to use 
it aright, and the condemnation of those who abuse it ; 
considering for how many profitable, or how many 
" idle" purposes it may be employed, have we not a 
sufficient warrant for applying also to the occupation of 
this gift, the words of the Saviour spoken in another 
case ? Matt. xii. 37. " By thy " money " thou shalt be 
justified, and by thy" money " thou shalt be con- 
demned." 



THE BAR OF SCRIPTURE. 199 

Let such* then, as have embraced the faith of the 
Gospel remember, that there is no trial of that faith 
which it requires greater watchfulness and prayer, and 
more use of all the spiritual armour, successfully to 
withstand, than their daily intercourse with the world, 
and the society of worldly men, — on account both of the 
enticing nature and the continual recurrence of the 
temptation. Even those who are sincere in heart, and 
upright in purpose, and who may be altogether free 
from hypocrisy in their religious profession, are often 
swayed insensibly by prevailing fashions and opinions ; 
and when acting in union with others, will engage in 
schemes, and conform to principles and practices, which, 
as individuals, they would not approve or justify. It 
is peculiarly important, therefore, that in forming their 
estimate of what constitutes that love of money which 
is covetousness, as opposed to the grace of Christian 
charity, which is love to God and love to man, they 
should beware of taking their direction from the rule 
and example of others around them, "measuring them- 
selves by themselves," — that is, by their fellow-men ; 
" and comparing themselves among themselves/' — 
which is the wisdom of the world ; but should look to 
the Word of God as their standard of duty, and to the 
pattern set before them in the Gospel, as their model 
and their guide. 

To conclude, let those followers of Christ who are 



200 COVETOUSNESS BROUGHT TO, &c. 

employing this particular talent of money and temporal 
possessions in his service, and according to his com- 
mandment, " continue in his love ;" let them ask still 
greater measures of the grace of Christian charity, and 
seek, by its fruits brought to maturity in themselves, 
to recommend it more and more to others. Thus shall 
they give in their account " with joy and not with grief;" 
and shall hear the gracious words, " well done thou 
good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 



THE END. 



